Somali Islamists yesterday declared victory over a US-backed warlord alliance and prepared to take over Mogadishu after four months of bloody fighting for control of the lawless capital.
Having captured nearly all of Mogadishu and a key warlord supply line on its northern outskirts at the weekend, the Islamists said elders were formalizing the seizure in a meeting with remnants of the alliance.
In a statement read over local radio stations, the chairman of the city's Joint Islamic Courts, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, said 15 years of warlord control of Mogadishu was over and urged residents to accept the new leadership.
"The Joint Islamic Courts are not interested in a continuation of hostilities and will fully implement peace and security after the change has been made by the victory of the people with the support of Allah," he said.
"The JIC will take care of the safety of the people and freedom of individuals and will eradicate any sort of hostilities brought about by inter-clan fighting," Ahmed said.
At least 347 people have been killed and more than 1,500 wounded, many of the civilians, in fierce battles between the Islamists and the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) since February.
The alliance was created that month with US support in a bid to curb the growing influence of Mogadishu's 11 Islamic courts and hunt down extremists, including al-Qaeda members they are accused of harboring.
The courts, which have repeatedly denied the charges, had declared a holy war against the ARCPT and denounced its funding by the US, which clerics assailed as an "enemy of Islam."
Washington never publicly confirmed or denied its support for the alliance but US officials have told the press they have given the warlords money and intelligence help to rein in "creeping Talibanization" in Somalia.
The Horn of Africa nation was plunged into anarchy with the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre and analysts have long warned it could become a hotbed for radical Islam along the lines of Afghanistan.
After railing against US support for the warlords at rallies in which US President George W. Bush was compared to a Nazi, Ahmed's victory declaration yesterday appeared to contain the hint of an olive branch to his foes.
"We are not against any group and will deal with the outside world in a manner that takes the interests of our country and people into account first," he said.
The announcement came as court representatives met with elders to discuss the handover of checkpoints, weapons and vehicles held by gunmen loyal to alliance members Musa Sudi Yalahow and Abdi Hassan Awale Qeydiid.
"The negotiations are progressing and by the will of Allah they will bring something by today or tomorrow that will mark the official end of violence," one senior Islamist official said.
A third warlord, Bashir Raghe Shirar, had yet to agree to the talks, the official said, and analysts caution that the Islamist seizure of Mogadishu could herald yet a new round of fighting.
It was not clear when the transfer would be complete.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS