...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
forces and
al-Shabaab... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim
al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
fighters have resulted in the death of 12 people in Mogadishu.
Twelve Somali soldiers died on Thursday morning after al-Shaboobs attacked Kuliyada military base of the transitional government troops in Mogadishu's southern district of Industrial Road, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Clashes broke out in the aftermath of the attack with the two sides exchanging heavy gunfire and barrages of mortar shells.
Nine al-Shaboobs were killed and at 13 Somali soldiers were maimed.
Boilerplate follows...
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
The Somali government has struggled for years to restore security but efforts have not yet yielded any result.
Nearly a million people have died following years of fighting between rival warlords and also due to the country's inability to deal with famine and disease.
There are more than 1.4 million internally displaced people (IDP) in Somalia. More than 300,000 IDP have been sheltered in Mogadishu alone.
Most of the displaced live in squalid conditions at makeshift camps in southern and central Somalia, according to the United Nations
...an organization whose definition of
human rightsis interesting, to say the least...
High Commissioner for Refugees.