Ethiopia-armed Somali militias take over central Somalia

Jimma Times

Clan militias and the moderate islamist Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama group captured towns in the Galgadud region of central Somalia, killing an al Shabab commander this week. Some Ethiopian opposition officials accused the Ethiopian government of supporting the Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama and pro-government warlords in the Bakool region.

Since Ethiopian troops withdrew from the country following a power sharing deal in Djibouti, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) directly controls little territory in Somalia, mostly limited to parts of Mogadishu with the help of African Union troops. But several moderate Islamist groups and Abgaal sub-clan militias allied to President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed have switched their support toward the TFG since the former President Abdullahi Yusuf, of the Darod clan, resigned. The northern Somaliland and Puntland semiautonomous Somali regions have not accepted the election of the new president.

Several dozen Somalis have died in the war between al Shabaab and the pro-TFG Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama fighters. The moderate islamists currently control the provincial capital of Galgadud.

Last week, Eritrea based Islamist leaders and clan militias in Somalia opposing the TFG created a new coalition called Islamic Party to fight the new President Ahmed’s administration, whose presidential palace was shelled by al Shabab over the weekend. According to local media reports, President Ahmed said he opposes Eritrea's "interference" in Somalia, speaking during the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa. Ahmed's rivals in Somalia, however, condemn his TFG's dependence on Ethiopia.

In December 2006, Ethiopian troops drove out al Shabaab islamists, a military wing of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), but the islamists took back most of southern Somalia, including Kismayo, during an Iraq-style insurgency. The Ethiopian government last week congratulated the moderate Islamist President Ahmed and the expanded TFG parliament but southern Somalia remains in another round of conflict, with UN officials estimating over 3 million Somalis will need food aid in 2009.