Fighting broke out in central Somalia on Friday between two moderate Islamist militias that the United States and others had been counting on, as part of a new strategy, to stave off the Shabab, the nation’s most powerful insurgents. Shortly before the clashes started, a Western aid worker was kidnapped from the same area.
Somali officials said that fighters from Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa, a moderate Islamist militia, abruptly invaded the town of Adado, setting off an intense street battle between them and the town’s forces in which at least half a dozen people were killed.
The violence seemed to have been fueled by a mix of clan rivalries and a power struggle with the authorities who run Adado, one of the few places in central Somalia that had been considered safe. Somali officials said the fighting there was a setback to the efforts to unite various clans and local administrations to push back the Shabab, who rule much of Somalia, chopping off hands and banning music, cigarettes and even bras in some of the zones they control.
“What happened in Adado is very serious, especially to attack a town which is relatively peaceful,” President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, the leader of Somalia’s beleaguered transitional government, said after Friday Prayer. “It could cause serious consequences.”
Already, more militiamen are streaming into the area, from several directions. There were reports on Friday night that the Shabab had seized Dhusamareb, a town near Adado that had been controlled by Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa, the moderate militia. The Shabab may have chosen to attack on Friday because the Ahlu Sunna forces were stretched thin by their strike on Adado.
Before this, Adado had been widely considered one of the most peaceful niches of south central Somalia, run by Mohamed Aden, a young Somali-American who returned two years ago from Minnesota to set up a small, clan-based government. His success in building schools, digging wells and delivering a modicum of stability in an area of Somalia that is home to terrorists and pirates had attracted the notice of the United Nations — and possibly envious rivals.
The kidnapped aid worker, a British citizen, is a consultant for Save the Children, which was exploring several aid projects in the area. It is not clear who is holding him or if the kidnapping was connected to the fighting.
Ahlu Sunna officials said they took over Adado because residents there were being abused. Several Somali analysts said the real motivation might have been to extend Ahlu Sunna’s power in the hope of becoming a rival to the transitional government.
The leader of the Ahlu Sunna forces that attacked Adado comes from a clan that has recently been at odds with the authorities in Adado, who are from a different clan and have regrouped outside the town, vowing to launch a counterattack.
The two sides had been loosely allied with each other — and with the nation’s transitional government — and had been somewhat successful in keeping the Shabab out of their areas. But the Adado authorities had declined to be folded into the Ahlu Sunna group, a possible source of the tension.
Central Somalia may now be on the verge of another turbulent period. On Thursday, in Xarardheere, a notorious pirate den, militant Islamist fighters fired into an angry crowd and killed civilians, including a pregnant woman, witnesses said. Apparently, the local population was getting fed up living under strict Islamic law and began stoning the fighters during a public lashing.
Jeffrey Gettleman reported from Nairobi, and Mohammed Ibrahim from Mogadishu, Somalia.
Source: nytimes
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