Key Takeaways: [1] Acute divisions among top al-Shabaab figures is less important than the often existential and broader divisions among other armed groups in Somalia. [2] Training/arming Somali forces is less useful unless deeper divisions are better addressed. On the… Read More ›
In mid-March 2013, Ethiopian troops deployed in the strategic town of Xudur in Bakool region withdrew its forces with little warning to residents or allied forces. Somali National Army (SNA) troops, who left alongside the Ethiopians, could not hold the… Read More ›
Brief Background on Jubaland Jubaland historically comprised of Lower and Middle Juba states. But military dictatator and ex-President Siad Barre split up the region in 1975, adding Gedo (created as an enclave for Barre’s Darod-Marehan clan members), Bay, and Bakool… Read More ›
This is the first in a multi-part series about Somalia in 2013. In 2012, the Somali National Army and its partners in AMISOM and Ethiopia retook major al-Shabaab strongholds–including the lucrative port of Kismayo–and essentially confined al-Shabaab to the southern… Read More ›
Uganda’s Security Minister Muruli Mukasa has stated that the country intends to withdraw its troops from Somalia and other conflict hotspots in response to the UN’s allegation that Uganda is supporting M23 rebels in DRC. Ugandan forces in Somalia—estimated to be at… Read More ›
According to several reports from 15 July 2012, al-Shabaab executed a young man who allegedly provided information to Ethiopian troops in the area. Several hundred residents in the town of Ceel Buur–located in the Galguduud region of Somalia–witnessed the execution of Faarax Maxamed Wehliye–the… Read More ›
somalianewsroom.com 