On December 28th, 2006, Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's transitional government forced militias loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts to abandon their stronghold in the Somali capital Mogadishu. As Ethiopian troops entered the city, warlords who had been driven out by the Islamists were seen reclaiming their turf, including the presidential palace and the city's main port. On December 29th, many in Mogadishu took to the streets to protest the Ethiopian invasion. The protesters, chanting anti-Ethiopian slogans, threw stones and burnt tyres in two separate neighbourhoods as Ali Mohamed Gedi, the US and Ethiopian backed prime minister, left the nearby town of Afgoye, 20km away and headed for the capital.

Over the past week the number of people killed has been estimated to be as large as 1,000. Thousands of people have also been displaced since Ethiopia sent 15,000 troops into Somalia in order to fight the Union of Islamic Courts.

The Bush administration has openly backed the mainly Christian Ethiopian military and has opposed the Islamic courts based on alleged al Qaeda links. Weeks before the invasion, General John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command, flew to Ethiopia to meet with the prime minister. The US has long supported the Ethiopian military, and in May was exposed as a primary supporter of one of the Somali transitional government's major warlord factions. The former US State Department official John Pendergast admitted, “We are now giving a yellow-slash-green light to Ethiopia’s policy of containment by intervention.”

Much of the international community, however, has not supported Ethiopia's intervention. The Arab League and African Union have called for Ethiopia to withdraw from Somalia.

On December 27th, the UN Security Council failed to agree to a statement calling for the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces. The UN also warned of an impending humanitarian crisis as aid flights to the drought-stricken population were suspended as an effect of the fighting.

Related Posts: Ethiopian troops occupy Mogadishu | Mogadishu Falls, Emergency Declared | Democracy Now Report | US backs Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia | US Defends Ethiopia, OIC Urges Ethiopian Pullout From Somalia | Ethiopia launches attack on Somalia | Somalia War Rages on | Somali forces take strategic town

Wikipedia: War in Somalia (2006–present) | Islamic Courts Union | Fall of Mogadishu | Battle of Jilib | Fall of Kismayo | Battle of Ras Kamboni | History of the Transitional Federal Government of the Republic of Somalia

Previous Coverage And Background On The Conflict