Timeline Somalia
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1527 Muslim
Somali Chief, Ahmed Gran, uses firearms against the Ethiopians for the
first time.
(TL-MB, p.13)
c1800 Many Bantu people from
Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania were taken from their homes and sold as
slaves in Somalia.
(NW, 9/2/02, p.35)
1934 Dec 5, Italian and Ethiopian
troops clashed at the Ualual on disputed Somali-Ethiopian border.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1935 Feb 18, Rome reported sending
troops to Italian Somalia.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1940 Dec 16, British carried out
an air raid on Italian Somalia.
(HN, 12/16/98)
1941 Feb 26, British took the
Somali capital in East Africa.
(HN, 2/26/98)
1960 Jun 26, British Somaliland
became independent and five days later was united with Italian
Somaliland as the Somali Republic.
(SFC, 4/10/96, A-5)
1960 Jul 1, French and Italian
Somaliland gained independence and united with the Somali Republic.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.44)
1961 Somalia adopted its first
constitution. A new one was adopted in 1979.
(www.pogar.org/countries/country.asp?cid=17)
1969 Oct 21, In Somalia Marxist
dictator Maj. Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre (1919-1995) staged a coup and
threw PM Mohamed Ibrahim Egal in jail, where he spent 12 years.
(SFC, 8/16/96, p.A18)(SFEC, 8/31/97, Par
p.16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siad_Barre)
1972 The Somali language first
became a written language.
(SFEC, 10/10/99, Z1 p.6)
1977 Feb 24, Pres. Carter
announced the US was cutting off all military aid to Ethiopia because
of its human rights violations. The unstated reason was the US desire
to cooperate with Saudi Arabia to lure Somalia from the Soviet camp, an
effort which was ultimately successful.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/africa.html)
1977 Oct 18, West German commandos
stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner that was on the ground in
Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing three of the
four hijackers, Palestinians of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine. In 1996 Suhaila al-Sayeh was sentenced to 12 years in prison
by a German court.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.A17)(AP, 10/17/07)
1977 Somalia and Ethiopia engaged
in battle. The Soviet Union provided tanks to both sides. Somalia tried
and failed to push into the Ogaden area of Ethiopia. The Somalis
managed to reach the walled city of Harer, a center for Islam in
Ethiopia.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.19)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.49)
1977 The last case of smallpox,
spread by variola virus, was reported in Somalia.
(WSJ, 10/19/01, p.A9)
1978 Feb 7, Ethiopia mounted a
counter attack against Somalia.
(HN, 2/7/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogaden_War)
1979 Aug 25, Somalia adopted
a 2nd constitution. The first was adopted in 1961 following
independence.
(www.pogar.org/countries/country.asp?cid=17)
1981 Apr, A group of Isaaq emigres
living in London formed the Somali National Movement (SNM), which
subsequently became the strongest of Somalia's various insurgent
movements. According to its spokesmen, the rebels wanted to overthrow
Siad Barre's dictatorship.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/sierra/somalia1982b.htm)
1981 Oct, The Somali National
Movement (SNM) rebels elected Ahmad Mahammad Culaid and Ahmad Ismaaiil
Abdi as chairman and secretary general, respectively, of the movement.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/sierra/somalia1982b.htm)
1981 Oct, The Somali Salvation
Front (SSF) merged with the radical-left Somali Workers Party (SWP) and
the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Somalia (DFLS) to form the
Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).
(http://tinyurl.com/3d4gg2)
1981 Northern Somalia rebelled
against dictator Mohammed Siad Barre. A national civil war followed.
During the civil was an estimated 40,000 people were killed and about
400,000 refugees fled to Ethiopia.
(SFC, 4/10/96, A-5)
1981 China emerged as a major arms
supplier to the Siad Barre regime in Somalia.
(http://tinyurl.com/3d4gg2)
1982 Jan 2, The Somali National
Movement (SNM) launched its first military operation against the Somali
government. Operating from Ethiopian bases.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/sierra/somalia1982b.htm)
1983 Feb, Siad Barre visited
northern Somalia in a campaign to discredit the SNM. Among other
things, he ordered the release of numerous civil servants and
businessmen who had been arrested for antigovernment activities, lifted
the state of emergency, and announced an amnesty for Somali exiles who
wanted to return home.
(http://tinyurl.com/3d4gg2)
1991 Jan 27, Muhammad Siad Barre,
the dictator of the Somali Democratic Republic since 1969, fled
Mogadishu as rebels overran his palace and captured the Somali capital.
Dictator Siad Barre was ousted and power fractured into some 27 warring
sides and Ali Mahdi Mohamed declared himself president.
(SFC,11/18/97,
p.B2)(www.empereur.com/somalia1991.html)
1991 The northeast corner of the
country declared itself the independent Republic of Somaliland.
(SFC, 4/10/96, A-5)(SFEC,11/23/97, p.A25)
1991 Thousands of Bantus fled
Somalia for Kenya. In 1999 the US designated this group of people as
persecuted and eligible for resettlement in the US.
(NW, 9/2/02, p.35)
1991-1992 Some 350,000 Somalis died from disease,
starvation and civil war.
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.A25)
1992 Aug 14, Pres. Bush ordered
the Pentagon to begin emergency airlifts of food to Somalia which was
suffering from severe famine and factional warfare.
(AP, 8/14/97)(HNQ, 1/1/00)
1992 Aug 28, US cargo planes
landed in Somalia with tons of food for African famine victims.
(AP, 8/28/97)
1992 Oct 9, To protect the US food
airlift, the first American forces arrived.
(HNQ, 1/1/00)
1992 Nov 26, An aid agency
predicted disaster if the United States sends a large military force to
Somalia.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1992 Dec 3, The U.N. Security
Council unanimously approved a U.S.-led military mission to help
starving Somalia.
(AP, 12/3/97)
1992 Dec 4, President Bush ordered
American troops to lead a mercy mission to Somalia, threatening
military action against warlords and gangs who were blocking food for
starving millions.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1992 Dec 8, Americans got to see
live television coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of
Somalia as Operation Restore Hope began (because of the time
difference, it was early December ninth in Somalia).
(AP, 12/8/97)
1992 Dec 9, U.S. Marines landed in
Somalia to ensure that food and medicine reach the deprived areas of
that country. The US Operations Restore Hope, Continue Hope and others
began in Somalia and ended Mar 3, 1995. They cost $1.7 billion and left
43 US casualties with 153 wounded.
(WSJ, 9/22/99, p.A8)(HN, 12/999)
1992 Dec 20, U.S. Marines and
Belgian paratroopers in Somalia took control of Kismayu's port and
airport; the first truck convoy in more than a month reached the
starving inland town of Baidoa.
(AP, 12/20/97)
1992 Dec 23, An American mission
to save lives in Somalia lost the first of its own when a U.S. vehicle
hit a land mine near Bardera, killing civilian Army employee Lawrence
N. Freedman of Fayetteville, N.C. In all over 100 peacekeepers died in
Somalia including 42 Americans.
(AP, 12/23/97)
1992 Dec 25, U.S. Marines
delivered wheat to a refugee camp in Bardera, Somalia, setting off a
small riot among the Somalis; American and French troops also took
control of Hoddur.
(AP, 12/25/97)
1992 Dec 28, Somalia's two main
warlords, Mohamed Farrah Aidid and Ali Mahdi Mohamed, promised an end
to their hostilities.
(AP, 12/28/97)
1992 Dec 31, President Bush
visited Somalia, where he saw firsthand the famine racking the east
African nation. He praised U.S. troops that provided relief to the
starving population.
(AP, 12/31/97)
1992 Dec, Italy sent 2,500 combat
troops to Somalia as part of the US-sponsored multinational force.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A8)
1992 At least 350,000 people died
in the famine that was compounded by clan warfare.
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B10)
1992 A UN arms embargo was imposed
in Somalia.
(AP, 8/1/06)
1992-1994 Italian Warrant Officer Francesco Aloi kept
a diary while in Somalia and documented instances of rape, torture and
other brutality against the Somalis.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A10)
1993 Jan 1, President Bush
continued to tour Somalia, greeting hundreds of cheering youngsters and
foreign relief workers at an orphanage in Baidoa.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1993 Jan 3, Three days after he
was jeered in Sarajevo, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali
took refuge from angry Somalis in Mogadishu.
(AP, 1/3/98)
1993 Jan 7, US forces in Somalia
unleashed tank, helicopter and rocket fire on two clan camps in
Mogadishu where snipers had been taking potshots at the troops. Cpl.
James Perciavalle of Leetsdale, Pa., became the 1st US Marine wounded
by friendly fire in Somalia.
(AP, 1/7/98)(Sewickley Herald (Pa), 3/3/93, p.11)
1993 Jan 13, Marine Pvt. 1st Class
Domingo Arroyo became the first U.S. serviceman to be killed in Somalia.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1993 Jan 25, Lance Cpl. Anthony D.
Botello (21) of Wilburton, Oklahoma, was killed by a sniper in
Mogadishu, Somalia.
(LCNT, 2/4/93)
1993 Mar 16, Canadian soldiers in
Somalia beat to death a local teenager, Shidane Arone, during their
participation in the UN humanitarian efforts. An inquiry led to the
disbanding of Canada's elite Canadian Airborne Regiment, greatly
damaged the morale of the Canadian Forces, and damaged both the
domestic and international reputation of Canadian soldiers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia_Affair)(www.dnd.ca/somalia/vol0/vol0e.txt)
1993 Jun 5, Militiamen loyal to
Mohamed Farrah Aidid killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
(AP, 6/5/98)
1993 Jun 11, United Nations forces
launched a nighttime attack against the forces of Somali warlord
Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
(AP, 6/11/98)
1993 Jun 17, U.N. forces in
Somalia searched in vain for warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
(AP, 6/17/98)
1993 Jul 12, In Somalia a mob
avenging a deadly United Nations attack on the compound of Mohamed
Farrah Aidid killed Dan Eldon (22), a US photo-journalist working for
Reuters, and three colleagues. They were stoned and beaten to death at
the scene of a bombing by UN forces of a house believed to be the
headquarters of Gen’l. Aidid.
(SFEM,11/16/97, p.30)(AP, 7/12/98)
1993 Aug 8, Four U.S. soldiers
were killed when a land mine was detonated underneath their vehicle.
This prompted President Clinton to order Army Rangers to try to capture
Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
(AP, 8/8/98)
1993 Sep 5, Seven Nigerian
soldiers were killed in a militia ambush in Somalia as they went to the
aid of other UN peacekeepers surrounded by a stone-throwing mob.
(AP, 9/5/98)
1993 Sep 9, About a hundred Somali
gunmen and civilians were killed when U.S. and Pakistani peacekeepers
fired on Somalis attacking other peacekeepers.
(AP, 9/9/98)
1993 Sep 25, Three U.S. soldiers
in Somalia were killed when their helicopter was downed by a
rocket-propelled grenade.
(AP, 9/25/98)
1993 Oct 3, Eighteen US Rangers
and Delta Force specialists died in a botched raid in Somalia and over
70 were wounded. In 1999 Mark Bowden published "Black Hawk Dawn," an
account of the failed attempt to capture Mohammed Farrah Aidid. At
least 500 Somalis were killed and 1,000 injured.
(WSJ, 10/23/95, p.A-18)(WSJ, 3/11/99, p.A20)(SFEC,
3/28/99, BR p.3)(SSFC, 12/16/01, p.A1)
1993 Oct 4, US troops blasted
their way out of Bakara Market in Mogadishu and left an estimated 500
Somalis dead. Dozens of cheering, dancing Somalis dragged the body of
an American soldier through the streets of Mogadishu.
(SFC, 5/6/99, p.E4)(AP, 10/4/98)
1993 Oct 7, President Clinton
ordered more troops, heavy armor and naval firepower to Somalia, but
also announced he would pull out all Americans by the end of March 1994.
(AP, 10/7/98)
1993 Oct 9, Special U.S. envoy
Robert Oakley traveled to Somalia in an attempt to revive a tentative
peace agreement reached by Somali clan leaders.
(AP, 10/9/98)
1993 Oct 10, Thousands of Somalis
demonstrated in the capital of Mogadishu to support warlord Mohamed
Farrah Aidid, an event that coincided with the arrival of special U.S.
envoy Robert Oakley.
(AP, 10/10/98)
1993 Oct 14, U.S. helicopter pilot
Michael Durant and a Nigerian peacekeeper were freed by Somali fighters
loyal to Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
(AP, 10/14/98)
1993 Osama Bin Laden was suspected
of supplying weapons to shoot down American helicopters.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A12)
1993 Muhammad Atef, a top Osama
bin Laden lieutenant, and 6 other al Qaeda operatives, set up training
camps in Somalia to help Somali tribes oppose a UN peacekeeping
operation.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A13)
1994 Jan 31, A convoy of U.S.
soldiers opened fire on hundreds of Somali civilians outside a food
distribution center, killing at least eight.
(AP, 1/31/99)
1994 Mar 20, Ilaria Alpi (32),
Italian journalist, was shot and killed in Somalia along with her
cameraman, Miran Hrovatin, on the same day that Italian troops left the
country. She had collected evidence of brutality by Italian officers
against Somalis along with evidence of illegal gun-running.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A8)
1994 Mar 25, American troops
completed their withdrawal from Somalia following a largely
unsuccessful fifteen-month mission. 20,000 U.N. troops were left behind
to keep the peace and facilitate "nation building."
(AP, 3/25/99)
1994 The laying of mines rose to
new heights of terror as civilian areas were deliberately targeted.
Truck loads of mines were scattered in houses, wells, river-crossings,
markets, and even cemeteries.
(UNICEFF Mailer,11/94)
1995 Feb 20, An American Marine,
Sgt. Justin A. Harris, died in a helicopter crash during the evacuation
of United Nations forces from Somalia.
(AP, 2/20/00)
1995 Mar 1, Somalia militiamen
loyal to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid seized control of the Mogadishu
airport after peacekeepers withdrew.
(AP, 3/1/00)
1995 Mar 2, The last U.N.
peacekeepers in Somalia were evacuated.
(AP, 3/2/00)
1995 Mohamed Farak Aidid declared
himself to be president.
(SFEC, 8/31/97, Par p.16)
1996 Apr 5, Heavy fighting in
Mogadishu, Somalia, left 75 people dead after peace talks broke down
between clan leaders Mohamed Farak Aidid and his former backer, Osman
Hassan Ali Atto.
(SFC, 4/6/96, p.D-2)
1996 Aug 12, It was reported that
2 Ethiopian businessmen were killed in retaliation for an incursion
into Somalia by Ethiopia’s army.
(WSJ, 8/12/96, p.A1)
1996 Aug 1, In Somalia Mohamed
Farrah Aidid died from wounds in a gun battle with a faction headed by
his brother.
(www.cnn.com/WORLD/9608/02/aideed/)
1996 Aug 2, Mohamed Farrah Aidid
was buried after dying from wounds received during fighting in
Mogadishu. Followers named his son, Hussein, as their new leader.
(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep 23, Ethiopian forces
exchanged fire with Somali militiamen.
(SFC, 9/25/96, p.A10)
1996 Oct 16, An agreement was
reached by faction leaders Hussein Aidid, Ali Mahdi Mohamed and
Ali Hassan Osman Atto, to implement a peace accord.
(SFC, 10/17/96, A11)
1996 Dec 17, Militia fighters of
Ali Mahdi Mohamed attacked the headquarters of Hussein Aidid in the 5th
consecutive day of fighting that brought the number of dead up to 135.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.C1)
1997 Jul 3, A Canadian commission
established to review the actions of peace-keeping troops in Somalia
between 1992-93 concluded that the troops were unprepared and
victimized by commanders who ignored problems that escalated to torture
and the killing of a Somali teenager.
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.C2)
1997 Nov 10, A month of rains
blamed on El Nino caused flooding in the Juba River Valley and left
some 800,000 people homeless and at least 23 dead. The death toll
increased to 564.
(WSJ, 11/10/97, p.A1)(SFC,11/14/97, p.D3)
1997 Nov 15, In East Africa it was
reported that storms over the past three weeks have killed at least
1000 people in Ethiopia and in Somalia and left some 100,000 families
displaced and in competition with crocodiles and hippos for dry land.
(SFC,11/15/97, p.A3)
1997 Nov 21, Five UN and European
aid workers were kidnapped by fighters of the Wasangeli subclan in
apparent retaliation for the seizure of a Palestinian businessman by a
rival subclan, the Marjeteen, earlier in the day.
(SFC,11/24/97, p.A12)
1997 Nov 22, The Marjeteen
attacked the Wasangeli and 2 fighters on each side were killed.
(SFC,11/24/97, p.A11)
1997 Nov 23, Somali villagers
isolated for weeks by flooding finally received aid from boats
traveling down the Juba river.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1997 Nov 24, All hostages were
released by the rival Marjeteen and Wasangeli militiamen.
(SFC,11/24/97, p.A11)
1997 Dec 8, Doctors reported that
31 children had died of cholera in recent days and that medicine was
needed to prevent an epidemic.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.B10)
1997 Dec 22, Leaders of the rival
factions approved a plan to restore national government. An interim
government was planned with power shared among the factions.
(SFC,12/23/97, p.D2)
1998 Jan 4, Some 60,000 Somalis
gathered in Mogadishu to celebrate the peace accord. The top 3 warlords
promised to open the seaport and airport.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 26, A boatload of Somali
refugees sank off the coast of Yemen and killed 180 of 188 people.
(SFC, 4/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 29, Factional fighting
killed 13 people in Hobyo, 2 days before a national reconciliation
conference.
(WSJ, 3/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 30, Ali Mohamed Mahdi and
Hussein Mohamed Aidid agreed to a joint administration for Mogadishu
after 7 years of fighting. 30 people were killed as rival clans clashed
in Kismayu.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.B3)
1998 Apr 15, Ten aid workers were
kidnapped in Mogadishu.
(WSJ, 4/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 24, The kidnapped aid
workers were released.
(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A9)
1998 May 8, Fighting in Kismayo
between rival militias left 23 dead and 30 wounded.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 21, It was reported the
in Somalia African honey bees killed 7 people near the village of
Tikhsile as they searched for food for their livestock.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A6)
1998 Dec 8, At least 18 people
were killed and 30 wounded in clashes between 2 rival clans in Baidoa.
(SFC, 12/9/98, p.B8)
1998 Waris Dirie and Cathleen
Miller authored “Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert
Nomad.” It was the story of Dirie and her flight from an arranged
marriage to become a supermodel.
(SFEC, 12/12/98, BR p.6)
1998 Nurrudin Farah published his
novel “Secrets” set amid the strife of the current civil war. It was
part of a trilogy that included "Maps" and "Gifts." Mr. Farah won the
Neustadt Int'l. Prize for Literature this same year. He was exiled some
20 years earlier from Somalia following the publication of his novel
"Sweet and Sour Milk."
(SFEC, 7/5/98, BR p.4)(WSJ, 9/10/99, p.W6)
1998 Abdulahhi Yusuf (Yussuf) was
elected by elders in Puntland. Yusuf was later challenged by Jama Ali
Jama.
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A7)
1999 Feb 15, It was reported that
cholera in Bandera, Somalia, has killed at least 60 people and infected
over 250.
(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 23, Militiamen loyal to
Hussein Aidid reported that they had killed 60 civilians in the Baidoa
town and the village of Daynunay.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.C3)
1999 Jun 28, Ethiopian forces
captured the regional capital of Garba Harre, 250 miles northwest of
Mogadishu.
(SFC, 6/29/99, p.A9)
1999 Aug 12, Ethiopia claimed to
have almost eliminated 3 rebel groups based in Somalia which it said
were supported by Eritrea. Most of the 1,103 killed or captured rebels
were of the Oromo Liberation Front.
(SFC, 8/13/99, p.D2)
1999 Aug 31, Clan gunmen killed 14
people and wounded 20 in a bus attack outside Mogadishu.
(SFC, 9/1/99, p.A16)
2000 Jan 2 Shuab Mohamed Hussein,
a CARE engineer, was killed during an ambush north of Mogadishu.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A12)
2000 Apr 19, Over 110 people died
over the last 2 days from an outbreak of cholera. 70 dead were in the
Ufatest commune and 40 in the village of Bulo Addey.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.C4)
2000 Apr 25, In southwestern
Somalia nearly 400 people in famine-ridden villages were reported dead
from cholera over the last 2 weeks.
(SFC, 4/25/00, p.A14)
2000 May 2, Djibouti Pres. Ismael
Omar Guelleh set up talks in Arta to establish a government for Somalia.
(SFC, 8/14/00, p.A1)
2000 May 20, It was reported that
three weeks of excessive rainfall had submerged central Somalia.
(SFC, 5/20/00, p.D8)
2000 Jul, Thousands of Somalis
took to the streets of Mogadishu in support of a peace conference in
Djibouti.
(SFC, 8/2/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 13, Over 2,000 Somali
leaders gathered in Djibouti to form a central government with a new
225-member parliament. Somalia swore in legislators for its first
central government after almost a decade of internecine warfare.
(SFC, 8/14/00, p.A1)(AP, 8/13/01)
2000 Aug 26, Abdiqasim Salad
Hassan, a former interior minister, won the presidential elections.
(SFEC, 8/27/00, p.C12)
2000 Sep 6, Clan fighting left at
least 25 people dead and 18 injured in villages north of Mogadishu.
(WSJ, 9/7/00, p.A1)
2000 Sep 18, Somali gunmen freed 2
European aid workers.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A10)
2000 Oct 14, Pres. Abdiqasim Salad
Hassan returned from Djibouti.
(SFC, 10/16/00, p.F8)
2000 Nov 17, Gunmen killed 7
people in an attack of a convoy escorting Ahmed Dualeh Ghellel, a
prominent businessman and new legislator. This was the 2nd attack in a
week against a new member of parliament.
(SFC, 11/18/00, p.C16)
2001 Jan 6, In Somalia Rahanwein
Resistance Army gunmen attacked government forces escorting officials
and at least 9 people were killed near Teiglow village.
(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.D2)
2001 Mar 27, Militiamen attacked a
relief convoy and 14 Somalis were killed. 5 kidnapped aid workers were
freed the next day, but 4 remained hostage. 2 Britons were released
April 4.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/29/01, p.A1)(SFC,
4/5/01, p.A11)
2001 May 12, Aidid forces gained
control of the seaport at Mogadishu in fighting with the Suleiman clan
militia. 40 people were left dead including 21 civilians.
(SSFC, 5/13/01, p.A13)
2001 cMay 18, The captain and crew
of a cargo ship from Bosaso forced overboard some 150 passengers after
the vessel developed engine trouble. At least 86 people drowned. Police
arrested the captain on June 21.
(SFC, 6/22/01, p.A16)
2001 May 19, In Somalia luggage in
a bus exploded near Halgan and 26 passengers were killed. Gunpowder in
a suitcase was placed near the engine.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.A16)
2001 cJul 1, The fledgling
government staged a show of force in Mogadishu with some 10,000 police
and troops.
(WSJ, 7/2/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 12, Fighting broke out
between rival subgroups of the Abgal clan in the Suq-Fad’ad market of
Mogadishu and at least 14 people were killed.
(SFC, 7/14/01, p.A11)
2001 Oct 28, In Somalia PM Ali
Khalif Galaydh lost a no-confidence vote after a tenure of 13 months.
Pres. Abdiqasim Salad Hassan prepared to nominate a new PM.
(SFC, 10/29/01, p.A9)
2001 Nov 25, Ethiopia sent troops
into the northeastern Somali region of Puntland to help Col. Abdullahi
Yussuf (Yusuf) regain power. Yussuf was overthrown Aug 26 after his
3-year term ended. On Nov 21 Yussuf launched an attack on Garoweh, the
capital of Puntland and said it was to crush Islamic terrorists.
(SFC, 11/26/01, p.A11)(WSJ, 11/28/01, p.A10)
2001 Warlord Hussein Mohammed
Aidid advised Pres. Bush that Al Barakaat, a money transfer and telecom
company, had ties to terrorists and that there were terrorists in
Somalia sympathetic to Osama bin Laden.
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.A7)
2002 Jan 3, The US announced
increased military operations in Somalia and prepared to send Marines
there. It was suspected that Al Qaeda fighters might attempt fleeing to
Somalia.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A19)(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A14)
2002 Apr 30, A fire destroyed half
of the Bakara market in Mogadishu. At least 7 people were killed in
attempts to stop looters.
(SFC, 5/1/02, p.A13)
2002 May 24, In Mogadishu hundreds
of gunmen, loyal to Mohamed Dhereh and opposed to the transitional
government, attacked the home of Interior Minister Dahir Dayah and
killed at least 8 people.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A13)
2002 Jun 27, In central Somalia
rival militias fought a fierce battle over the deaths of fellow
clansmen, leaving 23 people dead and 40 wounded just one day after a
peace deal was reached.
(AP, 6/27/02)
2002 Jun 29, Somalia's
transitional government formally called for the U.N. Security Council
to send an armed force to the Horn of Africa nation.
(AP, 6/29/02)
2002 Jul 5, In Somalia a mutiny
against a prominent faction leader entered a second day, with street
fighting in the city of Baidoa leaving eight militiamen dead and
injuring 25 others, including civilians.
(AP, 7/5/02)
2002 Sep 5, In Somalia militiamen
tied white flags to their weapons as an informal cease-fire halted two
days of fierce fighting in a capital area that has left more than 25
people dead and 50 wounded.
(AP, 9/5/02)
2002 Oct 4, In central Somalia
heavy fighting between the Sa'ad subclan and the Majerten clan killed
at least 10 people and injured 25 others.
(AP, 10/5/02)
2002 Oct 13, In Somalia a boat
that had carried 120 Somalis and Ethiopians from the village of Marear
more than two weeks ago, landed with 50 survivors. The engine failed,
leaving them drifting in the Gulf of Aden. At least 70 people who were
headed to Persian Gulf states in search of jobs died.
(AP, 10/14/02)
2002 Oct 24, In Kenya would-be
carjackers shot and killed Esterlin Abdi Arush (45), a Somali human
rights activist, at the gate of the house where she was staying in
Nairobi.
(AP, 10/25/02)
2002 Oct 29, In southwestern
Somalia hundreds of rival militiamen armed with heavy weapons fought
for control of a strategic border town, leaving 25 dead and 37 wounded.
(AP, 10/29/02)
2002 Dec 24, In Somalia 3
unidentified gunmen opened fire on a school minibus in Mogadishu,
killing four students and wounding 10 others.
(AP, 12/24/02)
2003 Jan 4, A boat from Somalia to
Yemen developed engine trouble and capsized and at least 80 people were
feared dead.
(AP, 1/16/03)
2003 May 20, The first of more
than 12,000 Somali Bantus awaiting resettlement set out for the US,
leaving at long last the refugee camps where most have lived for a
decade.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 Jul 5, Delegates at a Somali
peace conference agreed to create a federal government.
(AP, 7/6/03)
2003 Jul 9, In northwestern
Somalia 3 days of fighting among hundreds of gunmen from rival
clan-based factions killed more than 40 people and wounded 90.
(AP, 7/10/03)
2003 Sep 15, Over 360 Somali
delegates in Kenya adopted a transitional charter that outlines a
future government for the troubled African nation.
(AP, 9/16/03)
2003 Oct 5, In Somalia
Annalena Tonelli (60), an Italian aid worker who dedicated 33 years of
her life to helping Somalis, was shot and killed outside the hospital
she founded to treat tuberculosis patients.
(AP, 10/6/03)
2003 Dec 16, In central Somalia
rival militias battled over barren desert lands in fighting that killed
at least 31 people and wounded 50 others.
(AP, 12/17/03)
2004 Jan 29, Somalia's feuding
leaders signed an agreement to form a new government based along clan
lines, the first deal of its kind to include all armed groups that have
torn the country apart for the last 13 years.
(AP, 1/29/04)
2004 Mar 30, A boat carrying 107
people sank during the crossing from Somalia to Yemen and only four
other people, including two crew members, were rescued.
(AP, 3/30/04)
2004 Mar, Somalia’s 1st Coca-Cola
bottling plant opened in Mogadishu.
(Econ, 4/3/04, p.50)
2004 Apr, Pres. Kibaki’s
government announced that Kenya would no longer recognize Somali
passports.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.46)
2004 Oct 10, Members of Somalia’s
transitional parliament elected Col. Abdullahi Yusuf (70) as interim
president.
(SFC, 10/11/04, p.A3)
2004 Dec 11, Somalia's parliament
passed a motion of no-confidence against the country's new prime
minister and his Cabinet, effectively sacking the government. Some 153
members of the 275-member transitional parliament voted against Prime
Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi, accusing him of failing to respect
power-sharing arrangements agreed to by warlords and the country's main
clans.
(AP, 12/11/04)
2004 Dec 26, The world's most
powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that
slammed into villages and seaside resorts across southern and southeast
Asia. The initial estimated death toll of 9,000 soon rose to some
230,000 people in 14 countries. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake was the
world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor
hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964. The epicenter was located 155
miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on
Sumatra, and six miles under the seabed of the Indian Ocean. In
Indonesia at least 166,320 people were killed.
Bangladesh reported 2 killed; India: at least 9,691 deaths: thousands
were missing and possibly dead in India's remote Andaman and Nicobar
Islands. Indonesia: At least 101,318 people were killed on Sumatra
island and small islands off its coast. Kenya reported 1 killed.
Malaysia: At least 68 people, including an unknown number of foreign
tourists, were dead. Myanmar: At least 90 people were killed. Sri
Lanka: At least 30,680 were killed in government and rebel controlled
areas. The Maldives, an archipelago of 1,190 low-lying coral islands
and a tiny population of 280,000, at least 82 people were killed and
missing. At least 42 islands were flattened in the low-lying atoll
nation. Somalia: At least 298 were killed. Tanzania: At least 10
killed. Thailand: The confirmed death toll for Thailand reached 5,322,
but many suspected Myanmar migrants were not counted.
(SFC, 12/28/04, p.A1)(AP, 12/30/04)(SSFC, 1/2/05,
p.A12)(AP, 1/7/05)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.41)(AP, 12/25/09)
2005 Jan 22, Somalia's government
vowed to bring to justice militiamen who exhumed hundreds of skeletons
from an Italian colonial-era cemetery and dumped them near Mogadishu's
airport.
(Reuters, 1/22/05)
2005 Feb 9, In Somalia BBC
journalist Kate Peyton was shot to death outside a Mogadishu hotel
where she had interviewed some members of the interim parliament.
(SFC, 2/19/05, p.A14)
2005 May 3, An explosion erupted
as Somalia's provisional prime minister was starting a speech, killing
at least seven people and causing an undetermined number of injuries at
a government rally in Mogadishu's soccer stadium.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 14, Warlords began
withdrawing thousands of militia fighters from the Somali capital in a
bid to restore order after more than 15 years of anarchy and civil war.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 June 27, In Somalia gunman
hijacked the MV Semlow, a ship carrying food aid, and held the vessel
for 100 days before it was released Oct. 4.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Jul 4, The UN’s World Food
Program (WFP) said it has suspended aid shipments to lawless Somalia
after gunmen hijacked a vessel it chartered and demanded a $500,000
ransom.
(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Aug 13, Rival militias in
arid southwestern Somalia battled for control over a village with
pastures and wells. Twelve combatants died, and hundreds of residents
fled.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 31, Some 200 Somalis and
Ethiopians left Somalia's semiautonomous Puntland region in two boats.
Smugglers making the illegal crossing from Somalia to Yemen forced
passengers into the Red Sea at gunpoint 10 miles from the Yemeni
coastline, leaving at least 57 dead and about 100 missing.
(AP, 9/5/05)
2005 Sep 23, Police in the
breakaway republic of Somaliland raided houses in the capital,
Hargeisa, where al-Qaida militants were believed holed up and captured
four suspects after a shootout. A fifth suspect was arrested 20 miles
away. Pres. Dahir Riyale Kahnin said the men were mostly locals trained
at a camp outside Mogadishu, Somalia.
(AP, 9/23/05)(Econ, 10/1/05, p.43)
2005 Oct 12, In Somalia 6 armed
men hijacked the MV Miltzow, a ship carrying food aid, as it was
unloading at the port of Merka, marking the second such incident in
recent months.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 14, Somalia's PM Ali
Mohamed Gedi called on neighboring countries to send warships to patrol
his nation's waters after pirates seized a 3rd cargo vessel delivering
food aid.
(AP, 10/14/05)
2005 Oct 17, Abdi Hassan Awale,
who once served as Somalia's interior minister, was arrested on
suspicion of war crimes while attending a conference in Sweden. He is
suspected of being a militia leader during the Oct 3, 1993, "Black Hawk
Down" battle that left 18 Americans dead.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Nov 5, The cruise ship MV
Seaborn Spirit, carrying at least 600 tourists from Europe, narrowly
escaped seizure by gunmen off the pirate-infested Somali coast when it
sped off to the high seas amid a trail of gunfire. At least 23
hijackings and attempted seizures have been recorded off the Somalia
coastline since mid-March, according to the International Maritime
Bureau (IMB), which has warned ships to stay as far away from the coast
as possible and keep radio communication to the minimal.
(AFP, 11/5/05)
2005 Nov 6, Gunmen in Mogadishu
threw grenades and a land mine exploded near the convoy carrying
Somalia's PM Ali Mohamed Gedi, but the leader escaped unharmed. At
least two people were killed and 12 wounded in the attack.
(AP, 11/6/05)
2005 Nov 27, Pirates freed a
Ukrainian cargo ship seized nearly 40 days ago off the coast of
Somalia. The Panahia and its 22 crew members were seized Oct 18. It was
not immediately clear if the $700,000 ransom demanded by the pirates
had been paid.
(AP, 11/27/05)
2005 Dec 25, In Somalia warlords
and civilians installed a council to govern Mogadishu, an action that
further fragments the nation but could bring the capital under the
control of a single group after 14 years of anarchy.
(AP, 12/25/05)
2005 Dec 29, Drought was reported
to have triggered extreme food shortages in the East African countries
of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, putting millions of people at risk of
famine as the lean dry season approaches.
(AP, 12/30/05)
2005 According to the
International Maritime Bureau the number of overall reported at-sea
hijackings by pirates off the Somali coast was 35, compared with two in
2004.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2006 Jan 1, East African leaders
said that millions of people in the region faced hunger because poor
rains had affected vital crops and pasture. Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya,
Somalia and Tanzania faced acute food shortages.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 21, US Navy vessels sent
warning shots and captured the crew of a suspected pirate ship in the
Indian Ocean off Somalia's coast. The US Navy boarded the pirate ship
and detained 26 men for questioning. Sailors aboard the dhow told Navy
investigators that pirates hijacked the vessel six days ago near
Mogadishu and thereafter used it to stage pirate attacks on merchant
ships.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Feb, In Somalia a warlord
alliance, the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and
Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), was created with US support in a bid to curb
the growing influence of the Islamic courts, hunt down the extremists
they are accused of sheltering and disrupt feared plans for new
terrorist attacks.
(AP, 6/15/06)
2006 Mar 18, Two US Navy warships
exchanged gunfire with suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia, and
one suspect was killed and five others were wounded.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 21, The UN appealed for
nearly $327 million in aid to help starving people in southern Somalia,
which is suffering its worst drought in a decade.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 24, In Mogadishu,
Somalia, 13 people were killed as fighting continued between Islamic
militia fighters and forces opposed to fundamentalist clerics. 3 days
of clashes left at least 73 people dead.
(SFC, 3/25/06, p.A3)
2006 Mar 25, In Somalia hundreds
of heavily armed Islamic militiamen launched an offensive to try to
capture a key port and airstrip on the northeastern outskirts of
Mogadishu.
(AP, 3/25/06)
2006 Mar 29, Some 20 Filipino
seamen were seized after their oil tanker, the United Arab
Emirates-registered MT LIN1, offloaded its cargo at a southern Somali
port. The men were released in July 15 following negotiations.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Apr 4, The South Korean ship
628 Dongwon was seized by eight armed assailants, who approached in two
speed boats firing guns off the coast of Somalia. 25 crew members were
reported safe and officials sought their release. The sailors were
released July 30 after more than $800,000 in ransom was paid.
(AP, 4/5/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Apr 5, Militants who captured
the South Korean fishing vessel off the coast of Somalia denied they
were pirates and said they were defending their waters from illegal
fishing.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 17, Somalia granted the
US Navy permission to patrol coastal waters to combat piracy.
(WSJ, 4/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr, Somalia’s transitional
government named Mohamud Hassan Ali (52), a resident of Minnesota since
2000, as mayor of Mogadishu. His uncle had served as mayor of Mogadishu
from 1959-1963.
(SSFC, 6/11/06, p.A22)
2006 May 7, Officials said pirates
who hijacked a cargo ship off the coast of Somalia and killed one of
its crew members have released the vessel after holding it for a week.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 9, Somalian factions said
they have agreed to a truce following clashes between Islamic fighters
and a warlord alliance that have killed about 60 people.
(WSJ, 5/10/06, p.A1)
2006 May 10, In Somalia a brief
truce collapsed in Mogadishu and renewed fighting pushed the death toll
to almost 100 people over 4 days of fighting.
(WSJ, 5/11/06, p.A1)
2006 May 11, In Somalia fighters
loyal to secular warlords and Islamic extremists fired artillery and
mortars at each other Mogadishu as hundreds of families fled violence
that has killed at least 122 people over five days.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 13, In Somalia Islamic
militia and secular fighters pounded each other with heavy artillery
and mortar fire as the death toll rose to 142 in seven days of fighting
for control of a neighborhood north of the Mogadishu.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 16, In Somalia fighting
between Islamic militias and rival secular fighters killed two people
on the outskirts of Mogadishu, despite a weekend cease-fire ending days
of bloodshed in the capital.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a
Somali-born member of Parliament, said she will resign and leave
Holland after the government said she was improperly granted
citizenship. She became an internationally known opponent of some
violent types of Islam.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 17, A secular alliance
that is battling fundamentalist Islamic militias in Somalia charged
that its rivals are bolstered by fighters from the Middle East,
Pakistan and elsewhere, and said it has the bodies to prove it. The
interim government said the US was supporting secular warlords fighting
Islamic groups for control of Mogadishu.
(AP, 5/17/06)(SFC, 5/18/06, p.A11)
2006 May 25, In Somalia renewed
fighting between Islamic militias and secular warlords killed at least
38 people in Mogadishu and sent thousands of frightened civilians
running from their homes.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 27, In Mogadishu,
Somalia, Islamic militiamen and rival secular fighters traded
machine-gun, rocket and mortar fire, killing at least eight and
wounding a dozen as residents fled on foot or in hired minivans.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 31, In Somalia Islamic
militias and secular warlords resumed fighting for control of
Mogadishu, killing at least 13 people and wounding 11 after a five-day
lull.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 Jun 3, In Somalia 5 people
were killed in fighting between Islamic militiamen and their secular
rivals on the outskirts of Mogadishu.
(AP, 6/3/06)
2006 Jun 5, An Islamic militia
said it has seized Somalia's capital after weeks of bloody fighting and
15 years of anarchy in this Horn of Africa nation, raising fears that
the nation could fall under the sway of al-Qaida. Some 350 fighters and
civilians had been killed over the past month with at least 2,000
wounded.
(AP, 6/5/06)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.44)
2006 Jun 7, In Somalia Islamist
leaders in control of Mogadishu agreed to talks with the country’s
transitional government. A counter-offensive by rival warlords,
supported by the US, still posed a threat.
(SFC, 6/8/06, p.A18)
2006 Jun 13, Seven east African
nations imposed travel bans on Somali warlords, who lost bloody battles
with Islamist fighters over Mogadishu, and froze their assets in effort
to push them into peace talks.
(AP, 6/13/06)
2006 Jun 14, Somali lawmakers in
Baidoa approved a peacekeeping mission for Somalia. Fighters
determined to install Islamic rule across Somalia won a strategic town,
entering Jowhar after their secular rivals fled their last stronghold
in the south.
(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Jun 16, In Somalia some
10,000 opponents of an international peacekeeping mission demonstrated
in Mogadishu, which is controlled by an Islamic militia accused by the
US of harboring wanted al-Qaida members.
(AP, 6/16/06)
2006 Jun 17, The leader of
Somalia's increasingly powerful Islamic militia accused Ethiopian
troops of crossing into the country, a charge Ethiopia denied.
(AP, 6/17/06)
2006 Jun 22, Somalia's largely
powerless government and the Islamic fighters who control the country's
capital agreed to stop military action and recognize each other.
(AP, 6/22/06)
2006 Jun 23, In Somalia Martin
Adler, a Swedish television cameraman, was fatally shot by an
unidentified gunman during a demonstration in Mogadishu.
(AP,
6/23/06)(www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2006/06/adler.html)
2006 Jun 24, In Somalia Sheikh
Hassan Dahir Aweys, a fundamentalist Muslim, who the US suspects of
collaborating with al-Qaida terrorists, was named as the new leader of
an Islamic militia that has seized control of Mogadishu. Aweys was
aided by fighters loosely linked to the Shabab, the armed wing of
Islamic Courts Union.
(AP, 6/24/06)(Econ, 7/1/06, p.44)(Econ, 7/5/08, p.58)
2006 Jun 27, In Mogadishu,
Somalia, members of an Islamic militia that controls most of southern
Somalia battled for a clan-held checkpoint, killing five people before
declaring victory.
(AP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jun 29, The hard-line Muslim
leaders who have seized control of much of southern Somalia claimed
authority throughout the country in yet another blow to the largely
powerless but internationally recognized interim government.
(AP, 6/29/06)
2006 Jun 30, Three Darfur rebel
groups, that have refused to sign up to an African Union-mediated peace
deal for the troubled western Sudanese region, formed a new alliance to
fight Khartoum. Officials from the groups created the National
Redemption Front (NRF) after talks in the Eritrean capital and
reaffirmed their opposition to the Abuja peace agreement.
(AFP, 6/30/06)
2006 Jul 1, About 100 Ethiopian
troops entered the Somali border town of Beled-Hawo in eight military
vehicles, the latest sign that Ethiopia might try to bolster this
country's weak interim government as an Islamic militia gains
increasing power.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 2, Africa's leaders
meeting in Gambia agreed to send troops to Somalia to support regional
efforts at calming the chaotic east African state.
(Reuters, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 4, Radical Islamic
militia fighters in Somalia shot and killed two people who were
watching a World Cup soccer broadcast. The Islamic group that controls
Somalia's capital soon arrested two of its own militiamen for killing
two people who were watching the soccer match.
(AP, 7/5/06)(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 6, Members of the radical
Islamic group that controls Somalia's capital met African, Arab and
European officials and repeated their opposition to the deployment of
peacekeepers to stabilize the lawless country.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 8, The Islamic militiamen
controlling the Somali capital broke up a wedding celebration because a
band, the Mogadishu Stars, was playing and women and men were
socializing together. Band members were flogged with electric cables.
(AP, 7/8/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.47)
2006 Jul 9, In Somalia 20 people
were killed in bloody fighting as Islamic fighters fought supporters of
Abdi Awale Qaybdiid, who refused to disarm.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 10, Somalia's Islamic
militia battled a pocket of resistance, pounding Mogadishu with
machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades and at least 7 people
were killed.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 11, Hundreds of fighters
who were battling Somalia's Islamic militia in Mogadishu surrendered
after a surge of violence that killed more than 70 people and wounded
150.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 14, Somalia's nearly
powerless interim government said it would boycott weekend peace talks
with the Islamic militia that has seized control of nearly all the
nation's south, accusing the group of civilian massacres and ties to
foreign terrorists.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 18, In Somalia Islamic
militiamen who rule Mogadishu arrested about 60 people for watching
videos in several overnight raids.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 20, Residents of central
Somalia said that hundreds of Ethiopian troops were patrolling the town
of Baidoa in armored vehicles, less than a day after Islamic militants
moved near the base of the weak, UN-backed government.
(AP, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 21, An Islamic militia
leader called for a holy war against Ethiopian troops protecting
Somalia's weak UN-backed government.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 22, Ethiopian troops sent
to bolster Somalia's weak government against a powerful Islamic militia
moved into a second Somali town and seized a strategic airport.
(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 23, In Somalia a local
rights group said gunmen have killed 682 civilians, including a foreign
journalist, in executions over the past year.
(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 26, Somalia's virtually
powerless government said a cargo plane landed at the capital's airport
and was carrying weapons for Islamic militants who have seized control
of much of southern Somalia. A spokesman for the country's official
government, based 150 miles northwest of Mogadishu, said the plane was
carrying land mines, bombs and long-range guns from Eritrea for a
militia loyal to the Supreme Islamic Courts Council.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 27, At least 20 members
of Somalia's parliament resigned, accusing the country's virtually
powerless government of failing to bring peace. The parliament is
supposed to have 275 member but 16 members have defected to the Islamic
militia and other seats remain unfilled after members' deaths.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 28, Hundreds of people
rioted near the headquarters of Somalia's virtually powerless
government after a Cabinet minister was fatally shot outside a mosque.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 29, Somalia's PM Mohammed
Ali Gedi accused Egypt, Libya and Iran of providing weapons for Islamic
militants who have seized control of much of this country's south.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 30, The first commercial
flight in a decade departed Mogadishu’s newly reopened international
airport, demonstrating how Islamic militants have pacified the
once-anarchic capital and much of southern Somalia.
(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 31, In Somalia 275
militiamen with 50 pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns were
sent to central Somalia to break up the bases of Somali pirates who
have been kidnapping sailors.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 2, Somali leaders
struggled to regroup after a week in which 29 ministers quit the
government, with the defectors urging the virtually powerless
administration to reconcile with Islamic militants who have seized the
capital.
(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 6, A government spokesman
said Somalia's top interim leaders have agreed to end a rift
threatening the fragile administration after crisis talks led by Seyoum
Mesfin, Ethiopia's foreign affairs minister.
(Reuters, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 16, In Mogadishu,
Somalia, Islamic leaders gave seven men 40 lashes each for using or
selling marijuana, meting out the punishment in public in a dramatic
example of the region's new fundamentalist rule.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 21, Somalia’s embattled
PM Ali Mohamed Gedi named a new Cabinet, two weeks after the old one
was dissolved amid a rift within the UN-backed transitional government
over how to respond to the growing influence of Islamic militants.
(AP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 22, Ethiopian troops
reportedly arrived in the central Somali town of Galkayo. The move may
stoke tensions with the Islamic militiamen who control most of southern
Somalia. They were seen inside the town in 13 vehicles.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 23, Somalia’s seaport in
Mogadishu reopened for the first time in 11 years, the latest sign that
the city's Islamic fundamentalist rulers are trying to restore
confidence after more than a decade of anarchy.
(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Sep 4, Somalia's weak
government and an Islamic militia that controls much of the south
signed an agreement to eventually form a unified national army.
(AP, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 5, In Somalia thousands
of people massed in Mogadishu vowing to fight any foreign peacekeepers
sent to the embattled nation, while a coalition of East African nations
approved an ambitious plan to deploy troops in Somalia by early next
month.
(AP, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 10, Islamic militants
controlling much of southern Somalia shut down a radio station for
playing love songs and other music, the latest step to impose strict
religious rule which has sparked fears of an emerging, Taliban-style
regime. Islamic militants, who closed down a Somali radio station,
allowed it back on the air so long as it does not play music or love
songs.
(AP, 9/10/06)(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 17, Sister Leonella
Sgorbati, an Italian nun, was shot dead at a hospital in Mogadishu by
Somali gunmen, hours after a leading Muslim cleric condemned Pope
Benedict XVI for his remarks on Islam and violence. The nun's bodyguard
and a hospital worker were also killed.
(AP, 9/17/06)(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 Sep 18, In Somalia a massive
car bomb exploded outside the makeshift parliament building in Baidoa,
killing 11 people, including the president's brother, in an apparent
assassination attempt. As Pres. Yusuf fled, a gunbattle broke out
between his bodyguards and eight suspected accomplices of an apparent
suicide bomber. Six were killed and two were captured.
(AP, 9/18/06)(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 24, In Somalia hundreds
of Islamic militiamen in heavily armed trucks took over the southern
town of Kismayo, one of the last seaports that had been outside their
control.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 25, Somalia's interim
prime minister called on the UN to partially lift an arms embargo on
his country to allow for the deployment of African peacekeepers, which
he said are necessary to stop the advance of Islamic radicals. A
government order banned human smuggling. Ethiopian troops arrived in
Somalia to support the internationally recognized government in its
faceoff with radicals. The Islamic militia in the seaport of Kismayo
opened fire on thousands protesting the fundamentalists' takeover of
the southern town. Witnesses said a teenager was killed.
(AP, 9/25/06)(SFC, 9/26/06, p.A3)(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Sep 28, Somali police
investigating a car bomb assassination attempt on the president
arrested three suspected members of a fundamentalist Islamic group and
recovered explosives.
(AP, 9/28/06)
2006 Sep 29, Somalia's Islamic
fighters seized control of Jawill, a strategic village near the
Ethiopian border, widening their grip over much of the southern part of
the country. 3 pro-government militiamen and one Islamic courts fighter
were killed during the gunbattle for the village.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Oct 6, The UN refugee agency
said the number of Somalis fleeing fighting to seek refuge in Kenya has
risen dramatically and could stretch the capacity of aid organizations
to critical levels.
(AP, 10/6/06)
2006 Oct 7, In Somalia dozens of
people protested against an Islamic militia that has seized much of
southern Somalia, a day after the group appointed a new administration
in Kismayo, the country's third largest city.
(AP, 10/7/06)
2006 Oct 8, Authorities in
northeastern Somalia repatriated more than 1,000 Ethiopians whom
smugglers were preparing to take across the Gulf of Aden to the promise
of jobs and a better life in the Middle East.
(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Oct 9, Somali government
troops with Ethiopian help recaptured Burhakaba. The Islamic militia
that has seized much southern Somalia declared a holy war against
Ethiopia accusing its neighbor of deploying thousands of troops to prop
up the weak UN-backed government.
(SFC, 10/10/06, p.A3)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.49)
2006 Oct 12, The UN said it has
temporarily pulled international staff out of parts of Somalia
controlled by Islamic radicals after receiving written threats.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 13, Somalia's Islamic
radicals repulsed an attack by pro-government forces to recapture
Kismayo, a vital seaport. Islamic radicals carried out their second
public execution in less than a month amid fears of increasing
extremist violence. Mahad Osman Ugas (23) was executed by a six-man
firing squad as several thousand people watched. A jury convicted him
of killing a businessman while trying to steal the man's cell phone.
(AP, 10/13/06)(AP, 10/14/06)
2006 Oct 17, Kenya reported its
first case of polio in 22 years at a refugee camp near the Somali
border as the United Nations appealed for urgent help to cope with a
surge in refugees from Somalia.
(AFP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 19, Ethiopia's PM Meles
Zenawi told parliament that he had sent military trainers to help
Somalia's struggling government, but had not deployed a fighting force.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 24, Ethiopia’s PM Meles
Zenawi said Ethiopia was "technically" at war with Somalia's Islamists
because they had declared jihad on his nation.
(AP, 10/24/06)
2006 Oct 29, Somalia's Islamic
group broke off peace talks with the transitional government, demanding
that Ethiopian troops withdraw from the country.
(AP, 10/29/06)
2006 Oct 30, Somali Islamic
leaders banned youthful Somalis from marrying without the consent of
their parents, saying such unions violate Islam.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 5, A delegation of Somali
lawmakers broke ranks with the government and traveled to the capital
to hold peace talks with the country's Islamic militia, the latest sign
of cracks in the fragile administration.
(AP, 11/5/06)
2006 Nov 6, In northern Somalia
Islamic fighters clashed with government militia backed by Ethiopian
forces.
(SFC, 11/7/06, p.A18)
2006 Nov 12, Heavy fighting
erupted in central Somalia, a day after the transitional government
rejected a peace initiative with the country's Islamic movement.
(AP, 11/12/06)
2006 Nov 15, A UN report
identified 10 African and Arab countries, as well as Lebanon’s
Hezbollah, as arms suppliers to the Islamic militia in Somalia.
(WSJ, 11/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 17, UN aid bodies said
torrential rains and floods have hit up to 1.8 million people in the
Horn of Africa, driving tens of thousands from their homes and
threatening to trigger epidemics. Torrential rains have pounded the
Horn of Africa this month, bringing misery to large parts of Kenya,
Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and Eritrea.
(AP, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 19, In Somalia Islamic
fighters used land mines and ambushed an 80-vehicle Ethiopian military
convoy headed to Baidoa killing 6 soldiers and injuring 20.
(SFC, 11/20/06, p.A3)
2006 Nov 20, Gen. Addeh Museh, the
president of the semiautonomous region of Puntland, said he will rule
according to Islamic law, a surprising move in a relatively stable area
that has resisted the spread of Islamic militants who control most of
southern Somalia.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 23, Somalia's Islamic
militia invited US government leaders to visit the capital, Mogadishu,
the city where 18 U.S. troops on a peacekeeping mission to the East
African nation were killed in 1993.
(AP, 11/24/06)
2006 Nov 29, The UN Security
Council condemned a "significant increase" in the flow of weapons to
and through Somalia in violation of a 1992 arms embargo and voted
unanimously to keep monitoring weapons trafficking in the poor and
lawless Horn of Africa nation.
(AP, 11/30/06)
2006 Nov 30, In Somalia a car
blast killed 9 people near the Somali government seat of Baidoa in an
attack the administration blamed on Islamists backed by al Qaeda. An
attack on Ethiopian troops left 20 dead.
(AFP, 12/1/06)(WSJ, 12/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 1, The US circulated a UN
Security Council draft resolution that would authorize a regional force
to protect Somalia's weak government and threaten Security Council
action against those who block peace efforts and attempt to overthrow
it.
(AP, 12/2/06)
2006 Dec 5, Somalia's government
ruled out peace talks with the country's Islamic movement, citing truce
violations, heightening fears of an all-out war.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 6, In Somalia Sheik
Hussein Barre Rage, an Islamic courts official in Bulo Burto, said
residents who do not pray five times a day will be beheaded, adding the
edict will be implemented in three days. Hoping to head off a regional
proxy war, the UN Security Council came to the aid of Somalia's
virtually powerless government, authorizing hundreds of East African
troops to train and protect the interim administration in its conflict
with an Islamic militia.
(AP, 12/6/06)(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 7, Islamic militants in
control of most of southern Somalia warned that war will erupt over a
UN decision authorizing an African force to protect the country's
virtually powerless government.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 8, Sheik Sharif Sheik
Ahmed, a top Islamic official, said that militiamen are fighting
Ethiopian troops in Dinsor, a southern Somalia town. He called on
Somalis to defeat "the enemies who have invaded our land."
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 12, Somalia’s PM Ali
Mohamed Gedi said thousands of Islamic militants have surrounded
Baidoa, the only town the internationally recognized government
controls, as a top Islamic official promised to attack within a week
unless Ethiopian troops leave.
(AP, 12/12/06)
2006 Dec 15, Somalia's president
said that peace talks with the country's Islamic movement are no longer
an option because the group's leaders have declared war on his
government.
(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Kenya 11 African
heads of state attending the 2nd International Conference on the Great
Lakes Region signed a landmark $2 billion (1.5-billion-euro) security
and development pact to forestall fresh violence in the area.
(AFP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 16, A Somali lawmaker
bypassed the government and signed an agreement to end hostilities with
the country's powerful Islamic militia, a symbolic gesture that is
unlikely to have any real effect. Nearly 200 troops serving Somalia's
weak Western-backed government defected to the Islamic courts movement,
as both sides braced for impending war.
(AP, 12/16/06)(AP, 12/17/06)
2006 Dec 20, Heavy fighting broke
out between Somalia's government troops and rival Islamic militia.
(AP, 12/20/06)
2006 Dec 21, Fighting erupted for
a 3rd straight day between Somali fighters, one day after an EU envoy
got both the government and a rival Islamic movement to agree to resume
peace talks.
(AP, 12/21/06)
2006 Dec 22, In Somalia Ethiopian
attack helicopters and tanks headed for battle as fighting raged for a
fourth day between Somalia's Islamic militia and the country's secular
government.
(AP, 12/22/06)
2006 Dec 23, Somalia's Islamic
militants called on foreign Muslim fighters to join their holy war
against Ethiopian troops after days of fighting killed hundreds of
people and threatened to engulf the region.
(AP, 12/23/06)
2006 Dec 24, Ethiopia launched an
attack on Somalia's powerful Islamic movement, sending fighter jets
across the border and bombarding several towns in a major escalation of
the violence that threatens to engulf the Horn of Africa.
(AP, 12/24/06)
2006 Dec 25, Ethiopian fighter
jets bombed Somalia's main airport, the first direct attack on the city
that serves as the headquarters of an Islamic movement attempting to
wrest power from the internationally recognized government.
(AP, 12/25/06)
2006 Dec 26, Islamic fighters
retreated as Somali government and Ethiopian troops advanced on three
fronts in a decisive turn in the battle for control of this Horn of
Africa nation. Ethiopia’s PM Meles Zenawi said up to 1,000 of the
religious movement's fighters had been killed.
(AP, 12/26/06)(WSJ, 12/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 27, Ethiopian and Somali
government troops drove Islamic fighters out of the last major town on
the road to Mogadishu, the Islamist-held capital.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Dec 27, Yemeni authorities
opened fire on boats filled with refugees fleeing the fighting in
Somalia and at least 17 people drowned when one of the vessels capsized.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Dec 28, Somali government
troops rolled into Mogadishu unopposed, the prime minister said, hours
after an Islamic movement that tried to establish a government based on
the Quran abandoned the capital.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Dec 29, Somalia's prime
minister entered the capital, a day after an Islamic movement's
fighters retreated ahead of his Ethiopian-backed troops, and was
welcomed by thousands of cheering residents of the battle-scarred city.
(AP, 12/29/06)
2006 Dec 30, Thousands of Somali
and Ethiopian troops set off for a showdown with Islamic forces who
have regrouped at a southern seaport since abandoning the Somali
capital.
(AP, 12/30/06)
2006 Dec 31, Fighting erupted on
the outskirts of the last remaining stronghold of Somalia's militant
Islamic movement, as thousands of residents streamed from the area
ahead of the feared battle with Ethiopian-backed government troops.
(AP, 12/31/06)
2006 Hirsi Ali (36), a refugee
from Somalia and member of the Dutch Parliament, authored "The
Caged Virgin," a look at immigration, integration, women's rights and
the place of Islam in Western countries. Hirsi Ali, who was raised a
strict Muslim, now calls herself an atheist. She would like to see a
Muslim Reformation of the kind that remade European Christianity in the
16th century.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 In the waters off East Africa
unmarked fishing ships carried 23mm anti-aircraft guns and fished
illegally impacting the local fishermen of Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania.
Fish stocks fell as coral reefs were ripped, and numberless dolphins
and turtles were getting snagged.
(Econ, 8/5/06, p.43)
2006 In the borderlands of Somalia
a good quality AK-47 could be had for 3 cows, while an American M-16
fetched 5 cows.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.20)
2007 Jan 1, Somali government
troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and fighter jets captured the last
major stronghold of a militant Islamic movement, while hundreds of
Islamic fighters, many of them Arabs and South Asians, fled the town.
PM Ali Mohamed Gedi set a 3-day deadline for gun collection.
(AP, 1/1/07)(SFC, 1/3/07, p.A3)
2007 Jan 2, Ethiopian helicopters
pursuing Somali Islamists missed their target and bombed a Kenyan
border post, prompting Kenyan fighter planes to rush to the area. The
gun collection program in Mogadishu began with little response. 2
Ethiopian soldiers were shot dead.
(AFP, 1/2/07)(SFC, 1/3/07, p.A3)(Econ, 1/6/07, p.41)
2007 Jan 3, Kenya sent extra
troops to its border with Somalia to keep Islamic militants from
entering the country after Ethiopian helicopters attacked a Kenyan
border post by mistake while pursuing suspected fighters.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 4, A Somali government
spokesman said government troops, backed by Ethiopian soldiers, were
fighting about 600 Islamic militiamen in the south.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Kenya said it has
closed its border with Somalia in an apparent effort to keep Islamic
militants and refugees from entering the country.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 6, Somalia's interim
government indefinitely postponed plans to forcibly disarm Mogadishu as
hundreds of people burned tires, looted vehicles and said they wouldn't
give up their guns. Two people were reported killed and at 17 people
wounded.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 7, An American AC-130
gunship began attacking suspected al-Qaida positions in southern
Somalia. The US airstrikes were the first offensive in the African
country since 18 US troops were killed there in 1993. The main target
was Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who allegedly planned the 1998 attacks on
the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that killed
225 people.
(SFC, 1/11/07, p.A4)(AP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 9, In Somalia US AC-130
strikes were reported to have killed 10 al-Qaida suspects. Local
officials said the toll was much higher and included civilians.
(AP, 1/9/07)(WSJ, 1/10/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan 10, US forces launched a
third day of airstrikes in southern Somalia. At least four separate
strikes were reported around Ras Kamboni, on the Somali coast near the
Kenyan border. Unknown insurgents attacked a transitional government
barracks and soldiers responded by sealing portions of Mogadishu and
searching house to house for guns.
(AP, 1/10/07)(SFC, 1/11/07, p.A4)
2007 Jan 11, The UN Security
Council said it backs the speedy deployment of African troops to
Somalia and strongly urges a dialogue among all political players, in
addition to the delivery of humanitarian aid to the country.
(AP, 1/11/07)
2007 Jan 12, A government official
said Somalia's warlords have agreed to disarm and join a new national
army. Violence in the capital brought home the challenge of restoring
order in this fractious and heavily armed country.
(AP, 1/12/07)
2007 Jan 13, Somali lawmakers
authorized the government to declare martial law as the country's
internationally recognized leaders struggled to assert their authority
after battling an Islamic movement that had controlled much of southern
Somalia.
(AP, 1/13/07)
2007 Jan 14, An African Union
delegation was in Somalia's capital to discuss the deployment of
peacekeepers, as the government struggled to disarm Mogadishu residents
reluctant to give up their guns after years of fending for themselves
amid chaos.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 15, Somali troops and
allied Ethiopian soldiers conducted house-to-house searches, pursuing
gunmen who carried out an attack in the northeastern part of the
capital.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 17, A top Somali lawmaker
closely associated with the recently ousted Islamic movement was voted
out as speaker by parliament, a move that could undermine
reconciliation efforts in the restive country.
(AP, 1/17/07)
2007 Jan 19, The African Union
agreed to deploy a long-discussed peacekeeping force in Somalia.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 20, The last major
warlord in Somalia surrendered his weapons and 200 militiamen to the
army, while an Islamic leader claimed responsibility for a string of
guerrilla attacks and promised there would be more until the government
agreed to talks. An Ethiopian military convoy was ambushed in a new
round of deadly violence in the Somali capital Mogadishu, hours after
the African Union agreed to send peacekeepers to the war-torn country.
Kenya handed over 34 Islamic militiamen to Somalia's transitional
government. A Somali government spokesman said that some of them may be
senior leaders of the country's Islamic movement.
(AP, 1/20/07)(AFP, 1/20/07)(AP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 21, Sheik Sharif Sheik
Ahmed, a top leader of Somalia's ousted Islamic movement seen by the US
as a potential key to preventing a widespread insurgency, surrendered
to authorities and went under police protection in Nairobi.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 23, Ethiopian troops who
helped Somalia's government drive out a radical Islamic militia began
withdrawing in military trucks and tanks.
(AP, 1/23/07)
2007 Jan 24, In Somalia gunmen
launched several mortars at Mogadishu International Airport, killing at
least two people and wounding several others.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Jan 25, In southern Somalia
gunmen attacked Ethiopian soldiers stationed there, killing one and
wounding another.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 26, In Somalia a spate of
gunfire and mortar attacks in Mogadishu killed five people overnight
and injured at least four others.
(AP, 1/26/07)
2007 Jan 28, In Somalia gunmen
attacked a police station in Mogadishu, sparking an hour-long battle
that killed two people just hours after two other stations were hit
with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
(AP, 1/28/07)
2007 Jan 30, Somalia's president
agreed to a national reconciliation conference to try to end 16 years
of anarchy in the war-ravaged country.
(AP, 1/30/07)
2007 Jan 31, A senior AU official
said 3 battalions of peacekeepers from Uganda and Nigeria are ready to
be deployed in Somalia and will be airlifted in as soon as possible.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Feb 2, In Somalia an
explosion at an Islamic school for women and girls in Mogadishu wounded
at least seven people. At least three mortar attacks were launched
overnight in the city by unknown attackers.
(AP, 2/2/07)
2007 Feb 7, In Somalia doctors
said a cholera outbreak has killed more than 115 people and
hospitalized 724 in towns where people were forced to use contaminated
water from a flooded river.
(AP, 2/7/07)
2007 Feb 10, In Somalia mortar
attacks in a residential area and on a hotel in Mogadishu killed five
people and injured 10.
(AP, 2/10/07)
2007 Feb 12, In Somalia a mortar
slammed into a home in Mogadishu, killing a father and his 6-year-old
son as they slept and wounding four people.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 12, A vessel smuggling
120 people across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen capsized as it
approached the coast. At least 30 Somali and Ethiopian migrants trying
to reach the Arabian peninsula drowned.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 16, A Yemeni official
said a boat loaded with Somali and Ethiopian migrants capsized in the
Gulf of Aden during a night crossing in which at least 112 people died.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 18, Fierce inter-clan
fighting killed at least 43 people in Ethiopia's southeastern Ogaden
region, inhabited mainly by ethnic Somalis.
(AFP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 20, In Somalia mortar
rounds and rockets hit Mogadishu in a series of attacks that killed 15
people, including a 4-year-old boy, and wounded more than 40 others.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously to authorize an African Union
force to help stabilize Somalia.
(AP, 2/20/07)(AFP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 21, In Somalia gunmen
fatally shot two local government officials in Mogadishu.
(AP, 2/22/07)
2007 Feb 22, Extremists in Somalia
threatened to carry out suicide attacks against African Union
peacekeepers who are to begin deploying in the coming days.
(AP, 2/22/07)
2007 Feb 23, A Somali official
said Uganda's top military officials promised to help train a national
army for Somalia and help provide security for its government.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 25, Pirates hijacked a
cargo ship delivering UN food aid to northeastern Somalia, at least the
third time since 2005 that a vessel contracted to the United Nations
has been hijacked off the country's dangerous coast.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 27, The UN said Somali
authorities have arrested four suspects in the hijacking of a
UN-chartered cargo ship delivering food aid. The MV Rozen, however, was
still under the control of four pirates who remained aboard with 12
crew members as hostage. Attackers in Mogadishu killed Yusuf Mohamed
Dhisow, the brother-in-law of Somalia's prime minister.
(AP, 2/27/07)(AFP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb 28, Burundi said that it
will send 1,700 peacekeepers to Somalia as part of an 8,000-strong
African Union force, while the first Ugandan contingent prepared to
leave for the war-torn nation.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 1, An advance team of an
African peacekeeping force to Somalia arrived unannounced into the
country.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Mar 2, In Somalia 4 mortar
explosions rocked Mogadishu, wounding six people, including two
children.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 5, In Somalia gunmen shot
dead five people in two separate attacks in the lawless capital of
Mogadishu in an escalation of killings ahead of the planned deployment
of African Union peacekeepers.
(AFP, 3/5/07)
2007 Mar 6, In Somalia mortar
rounds slammed into Mogadishu's airport during a ceremony welcoming the
arrival of peacekeepers. At least 3 people were killed when a firefight
erupted between unidentified insurgents and Ethiopian troops near a
military base in Mogadishu.
(AP, 3/6/07)(AFP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 7, In Somalia a gunman
shot dead two policemen south of Mogadishu, close to the airport where
hundreds of African Union peacekeepers have begun deploying.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Mar 8, In Somalia insurgents
ambushed a convoy of African Union peacekeepers sent to help stabilize
Mogadishu, setting off a gunfight that killed at least 12 civilians.
(AFP, 3/8/07)
2007 Mar 11, In Somalia a
13-year-old boy and a woman were killed by stray bullets and five
others were injured as Ethiopian troops protecting government
installations battled with insurgents in Mogadishu.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 13, Somalia's president
came under mortar attack in his palace, hours after arriving for a rare
visit to the increasingly violent capital, witnesses said. A
12-year-old boy was killed and three of his siblings were wounded in
the shelling.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 15, In Somalia a bomb
blast destroyed two houses near Mogadishu, killing seven people,
including four children.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Somalia insurgents
struck the Mogadishu's seaport and former intelligence quarters,
killing two people and injuring at least 16 who were caught in fighting
that drew in Ethiopian and government troops.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 20, The commander of
African Union forces in Somalia pleaded for reinforcements as the AU's
security chief paid a flying visit to volatile Mogadishu.
(AFP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 21, In Somalia masked men
believed to be Islamic militants dragged the corpses of two soldiers
through the streets of Mogadishu and set their bodies on fire during
fierce battles with government forces trying to consolidate their
control. Medical officials at Mogadishu's three hospitals said they had
recorded at least seven dead and 36 wounded by early afternoon. One
fire-fight left 15 people killed. Un estimates said 40,000 of
Mogadishu’s 2 million residents had fled the city.
(AP, 3/21/07)(Econ, 3/24/07, p.54)
2007 Mar 22, Somali and Ethiopian
troops battled insurgents for a second day in Mogadishu with 4 people
killed and 6 wounded. The Somali government said Al-Qaeda has named
Aden Hashi Ayro, a ruthless Islamist commander, as its leader in
Mogadishu.
(AP, 3/22/07)(AFP, 3/22/07)(SFC, 3/23/07, p.A9)
2007 Mar 22, Smugglers taking
illegal migrants from Somalia to Yemen forced hundreds of Africans
overboard in stormy seas in an effort to make a fast getaway from
security forces. 31 bodies were found and nearly 90 people remained
missing.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 23, In Somalia a cargo
plane was shot down by a missile during takeoff died. Ten of the crew
died in the crash. Rescuers found a wounded crew member and took him to
a Mogadishu hospital where he died while being treated. All crew
members were either Ukrainian or Belarussian. Egi Azarian, acting head
of Belarus-based Transaviaexport, confirmed that the company's plane
was shot down.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 23, A human rights group
said Kenya has deported more than 100 people from 19 countries to
Somalia after they crossed the border between the two countries
illegally during fighting earlier this year, and the deportees were
subsequently arrested by Ethiopian troops.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 25, In Somalia one of the
elders involved in negotiations said talks between Ethiopian military
officials and elders of the dominant Hawiye clan in Mogadishu have
reached an impasse, threatening a two-day truce.
(AP, 3/25/07)
2007 Mar 29, Somali troops and
their Ethiopian allies pounded insurgent positions in Mogadishu with
bombs and tank shells, sending residents fleeing a surge in fighting
that killed over 30 people including 7 Ethiopian soldiers.
(AP, 3/29/07)(SFC, 3/30/07, p.A20)
2007 Mar 30, In Somalia insurgents
shot down a helicopter gunship in Mogadishu and mortar shells slammed
into a hospital in the worst fighting seen here in more than 15 years.
(AP, 3/30/07)
2007 Mar 31, In Somalia artillery
fire and mortar shells rained down on Mogadishu as government troops
and their Ethiopian allies continued a major offensive to quash a
growing insurgency by Islamic militants. A Ugandan soldier was killed
by artillery fire in Mogadishu, marking the first death among African
Union peacekeepers deployed here.
(AP, 3/31/07)(AFP, 4/1/07)
2007 Mar-2000 Apr, Ethiopia later
said that during this period it killed at least a thousand Shabab
fighters, the armed wing of Islamic courts in Somalia. Human-rights
groups said most of the 1,670 recorded dead were civilians.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.47)
2007 Apr 1, Mogadishu's dominant
clan said it has brokered a truce with Ethiopian military officials who
are supporting Somalia's government, even as mortar shells continued
slamming into the capital for a fourth day.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 2, In Somalia a human
rights organization said fierce fighting between Ethiopian-backed
government forces and Islamic insurgents has killed 381 people over
four days.
(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 6, Somali pirates freed
two hijacked merchant ships, including one that had just delivered UN
food aid when it was seized more than a month ago with 12 crew on board.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 11, In Somalia
Ethiopian-backed government troops and Islamic insurgents exchanged
gunfire in northern Mogadishu, killing three people and ending more
than a week of relative calm.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Apr 18, In Somalia overnight
street battles in Mogadishu left at least 11 people dead and dozens
others injured.
(AP, 4/18/07)
2007 Apr 19, In Somalia fighting
between Ethiopian troops and insurgents left at least 12 people dead in
Mogadishu, while a suicide car bomb exploded at an Ethiopian army base.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 20, In Somalia a local
human rights group said 3 days of fighting between Islamic insurgents
and Ethiopian troops backing the government has killed at least 113
civilians.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 21, In Somalia heavy
fighting between Islamic insurgents and Ethiopian troops backing the
government left at least 52 civilians dead in Mogadishu.
(AP, 4/21/07)
2007 Apr 22, In Mogadishu,
Somalia, the two main hospitals said they admitted 26 civilians wounded
as fighting eased.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 23, In Somalia masked
Islamic insurgents and Ethiopian-backed government forces pounded each
other with machine-gun fire, mortars and heavy artillery in Mogadishu,
bringing the death toll from six days of fighting to at least 250.
(AP, 4/23/07)
2007 Apr 24, In Somalia artillery
shells and mortars rained down on Mogadishu in a seventh straight day
of raging battles that have left nearly 250 dead.
(AP, 4/24/07)
2007 Apr 25, In Somalia civilians
were caught in the crossfire as the government's Ethiopian backers used
tanks and heavy artillery to pound insurgent strongholds. Human rights
groups said more than 350 people have been killed in the last eight
days, the majority civilians.
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 Apr 26, Somalia's prime
minister claimed victory over Islamic insurgents in Mogadishu, where
nine days of battles using tanks and artillery left hundreds dead.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 May 4, In Somalia Mohamed
Dheere, a former warlord, was sworn in as mayor of Mogadishu and
immediately ordered residents to get rid of their weapons. Aid groups
said 1,670 people were killed between March 12 and April 26 and more
than 340,000 of the city's 2 million residents fled for safety as the
government, backed by Ethiopian troops, pressed to wipe out an Islamic
insurgency.
(AP, 5/4/07)
2007 May 7, The African Union
announced it would send an extra 8,000 peacekeepers to Somalia but said
dialogue remained the only solution to the bloody conflict in that
country.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 9, Authorities said
Somali security forces are seizing and even burning Muslim women's
veils in Mogadishu to stop Islamist insurgents disguising themselves
for attacks.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 10, A land mine attack on
a convoy of Somali government officials ended in the deaths of two
civilians in Mogadishu. Elsewhere, two aid workers were reportedly
kidnapped.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 12, The UN top
humanitarian official made a landmark visit to Mogadishu, but the trip
was disrupted by an explosion that killed four people near the UN
compound. John Holmes said he had come to push the government to allow
humanitarian aid to reach its people.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 16, In Somalia a roadside
bomb struck a convoy carrying African Union peacekeepers, killing four
Ugandan peacekeepers in one of the deadliest attacks on the troops
since they arrived in March.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 20, A bomb detonated in
Mogadishu near the mayor's vehicle convoy, leaving at least two
civilians dead. His bodyguards shot and killed a suspected insurgent
who had been in a tree near the explosion.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 21, Ethiopian troops
backing Somalia's fragile government killed one person and wounded
another after their convoy was targeted by a land mine in Mogadishu.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 24, Somali police shot
and killed two civilians after attackers hurled a hand grenade at a
police station.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 30, In Somalia Ethiopian
troops shot and killed five bystanders after a land mine exploded as
their convoy passed through the center of a western Somali town.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 Jun 1, At least one US
warship bombarded a remote, mountainous village in Somalia where
Islamic militants had set up a base. One target was said to be Fazul
Abdullah Muhammad (35), a citizen of the Comoro Islands. The next day
Puntland VP Hassan Dahir Mohamoud told The Associated Press that his
government's troops killed eight foreign Islamic militants and five of
them came from Britain, Eritrea, Sweden, the US and Yemen.
(AP, 6/2/07)(AP, 6/3/07)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.52)
2007 Jun 2, In Mogadishu, Somalia,
unknown gunmen killed a government official, Hassan Ali Sa'id, as he
was about to enter his house.
(AP, 6/2/07)
2007 Jun 3, A suicide car bomber
drove through a roadblock guarding the home of the Somali prime
minister and rammed the vehicle into a wall. PM Ali Mohamed Gedi was
whisked to safety, but at least five people were killed in the
explosion.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, In Somalia Ethiopian
troops fired at a would-be suicide bomber speeding toward their base,
blowing up the car and killing the bomber and a civilian standing
nearby.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 13, Global shipping
officials warned that pirate attacks off Somalia's coast have spiraled
to terrifying levels, with US and international navies failing to
protect seafarers from being kidnapped.
(AP, 6/13/07)
2007 Jun 18, In Mogadishu,
Somalia, a roadside bomb hidden in a pile of garbage exploded, killing
two children and wounding 3 other people just minutes after security
officials drove by.
(AP, 6/18/07)
2007 Jun 26, In Somalia a roadside
bomb explosion in Mogadishu killed five women and a man and wounded
nine other people.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 28, In Somalia a roadside
bomb killed two Somali soldiers in Mogadishu in the latest of a string
of attacks highlighting worsening security.
(AFP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jul 2, Somali gunmen shot
dead a senior government official in Mogadishu. A teenager died when
munitions left behind by African Union peacekeepers exploded.
(Reuters, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 6, In Somalia 5 children
who stopped to play with a land mine on the way to prayers died when
one of them threw the device against a wall, causing a blast that sent
their bodies flying through the air.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 12, In Somalia insurgents
fired more than two dozen mortar shells at government targets in
Mogadishu overnight, including the president's home, in an apparent
attempt to disrupt this weekend's reconciliation talks. At least 3 men
were killed.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 19, A 30-minute gunbattle
rocked Mogadishu in the hours before a long-awaited Somali peace
conference was set to begin. At least two people were killed.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 26, In Somalia 2 separate
explosions killed at least five civilians in Mogadishu, where the
government is struggling to contain a lethal insurgency.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 26, UN arms experts
reported that Eritrea has secretly supplied "huge quantities of arms"
to a Somali insurgent group with alleged ties to al-Qaida in violation
of an international arms embargo and despite the deployment of African
peacekeepers.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 29, In Somalia gun
battles and grenade attacks killed two soldiers and two civilians in
Mogadishu, where the government is struggling to contain a violent
insurgency.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 30, In Somalia insurgents
attacked government buildings in Mogadishu, starting a gunbattle with
troops that killed at least 4 people, including a four-year-old child.
In the central town of Belet Weyne, two children and their father were
killed when Ethiopian troops fired artillery shells into a residential
area after a land mine exploded near their convoy. A land mine exploded
near a bus in southern Mogadishu, killing 5 on board and wounding 3
others.
(AP, 7/31/07)(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 2, In Somalia mortars
slammed into homes in Mogadishu after fighting between insurgents and
Ethiopian troops, killing 8 people, including a mother and her two
daughters.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 11, In Somalia 2
prominent radio journalists were assassinated in Mogadishu within hours
of each other, one just outside his office and the other as he returned
from his colleague's burial.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Somalia 2 suspects
were arrested in the deaths of two prominent Somali journalists who
were killed within hours of each other.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 14, In Somalia a local
human rights group said fighting in Mogadishu has killed 31 civilians
and wounded 60 in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Aug 16, Uganda announced
plans to send 250 extra soldiers to a peacekeeping mission in
Mogadishu, but Somalia's government warned they were not enough and
urged other African nations to commit troops.
(Reuters, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 18, Rival clan militias
fought over scarce pasture land and wells in central Somalia, leaving
18 people dead and 15 wounded.
(AP, 8/18/07)
2007 Aug 20, The UN Security
Council authorized an African Union force in chaotic Somalia for
another six months and asked the secretary-general to develop plans for
a possible UN troop replacement.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 22, Denmark's government
said Somali pirates released the crew of a hijacked Danish cargo ship
after receiving a ransom payment.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Somalia gunmen
shot and killed Abdulkadir Moallim Kaskey, a Somali radio journalist,
in southwestern Gedo province.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 26, In Somalia bombings
and grenade attacks killed two schoolboys and three other people in
Mogadishu.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Sep 16, Saudi King Abdullah
oversaw the signing in Jiddah of a reconciliation agreement negotiated
by several Somali factions in an attempt to stabilize their country and
battle the Islamic opposition.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 21, The Red Cross warned
that a massive aid effort is needed to cope with floods in 18 countries
across Africa that have already affected at least 1.5 million people
and killed at least 270 in Ghana, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Uganda
and other countries.
(AFP, 9/21/07)
2007 Sep 26, Transparency
International's 2007 index ranked Myanmar and Somalia as the most
corrupt nations. Both received the lowest score of 1.4 out of 10.
Denmark, Finland and New Zealand were ranked the least corrupt, each
scoring 9.4.
(AP, 9/26/07)
2007 Sep 27, Somali and Ethiopian
troops ordered thousands to vacate their homes in Mogadishu to allow
the forces to search for arms and insurgents.
(AP, 9/29/07)
2007 Oct 4, The government of
Somalia announced a crackdown on Islamic militants.
(WSJ, 10/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 5, Insurgents in Somalia
killed at least 5 people in a grenade attack at the main market in
Mogadishu.
(WSJ, 10/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 8, Mogadishu Mayor
Mohamed Dheere ordered Somalia's Elman Human Rights, an independent
rights group, to close its offices. The group was accused of spreading
"exaggerated and false information" about the country's fragile
government.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Oct 11, A suicide bomber in
Somalia drove a pickup filled with explosives into an army base killing
himself and 2 other people.
(WSJ, 10/12/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 17,
Irdris Osman, the head of UN food agency operations in the
violence-wracked Somali capital, was taken away by 50 to 60 heavily
armed government security officers who had stormed the UN compound in
Mogadishu. Osman was freed on Oct 23. Overnight, at least 8 civilians
and one policeman died during a battle between Islamic insurgents and
policemen.
(AP, 10/17/07)(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 24, In Somalia a roadside
bomb killed five civilians and wounded 16 when it exploded near a
minibus full of passengers in the war-ravaged Mogadishu.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 27, In Somalia insurgents
and government-allied forces battled with machine guns, mortars and
rocket-propelled grenades in the heaviest fighting to hit Mogadishu for
months, leaving at least seven people dead and dozens others wounded.
(AP, 10/27/07)
2007 Oct 28, The USS Porter, a
guided missile destroyer, fired on and destroyed two pirate boats tied
to the Golden Nori, a hijacked Japanese-flagged chemical tanker. The
ship was carrying a load of benzene off the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Oct 29, A long-brewing power
struggle between the Somali PM Ali Mohamed Gedi and Pres. Abdullahi
Yusuf ended with the premier's resignation, throwing the government of
the war-battered Horn of Africa nation into disarray. In Mogadishu,
hundreds of demonstrators marched through the streets in a second day
of protests against the presence of the Ethiopian troops in the country.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 30, Somalia's president
named Salim Aliyow Ibrow, a former deputy prime minister, as a
caretaker prime minister, a day after the outgoing premier lost a power
struggle in the government and resigned.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 30, The US Navy boarded a
North Korean flagged ship at its invitation with a small team of
medics, security personnel and an interpreter. The 22-person North
Korean crew already had regained control of the ship and detained all
the Somali pirates.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 1, The UN said nearly
90,000 people have fled Mogadishu in recent days following the heaviest
fighting to shake the war-battered city in months. About 40 people,
mostly Somalis, drowned while crossing the Gulf of Aden on their way to
Yemen in a desperate attempt to escape gunbattles back home. About 90
others survived and managed to reach the Yemeni southern shores of
Shokara after their rickety vessels capsized.
(AP, 11/1/07)(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 4, Somali pirates left
the Tanzanian-flagged boats Mavuno 1 and 2, which they had hijacked in
the waters off Somalia on May 15. The newly liberated vessels, and
their crew of 24, were under US Navy escort. Among the crew on the
South Korean-owned vessels were four South Koreans, 10 Chinese, three
Vietnamese, three Indians and four Indonesians.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 5, Somali pirates
released a Taiwanese fishing vessel 5 1/2 months after seizing it. The
US Navy helped free the fifth ship in a week hijacked by Somalia
pirates, attempting to bring security to crucial shipping routes
between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The Navy was in contact with two
remaining ships held by pirates in Somali waters.
(AP, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 7, In Somalia Doctors
Without Borders said the fighting had grown so bad in Mogadishu that
civilians who were shot or hit by shrapnel during the night frequently
bled to death because the violence cut them off from the hospitals.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 9, In Somalia witnesses
and doctors said heavy fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian troops
backing Somalia's shaky government has killed 50 people and wounded 100
others in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 12, UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said deploying a UN peacekeeping operation to Somalia is
not realistic or viable given the war-wracked African country’s
security situation, the intensifying insurgency and the lack of
progress towards any political reconciliation.
(www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24625&Cr=somalia&Cr1)
2007 Nov 13, Journalists said the
Somali government has shut down three independent radio stations in two
days, as troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers continued to battle
Islamic insurgents in the shrapnel-strewn streets of the capital.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 17, Somali rebels
launched an overnight attack on a camp of Ugandan troops in Mogadishu,
triggering fighting that left at least one insurgent dead.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 21, More than 60 migrants
drowned when their boat capsized off Yemen during an attempt to flee
their war torn homeland of Somalia.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Dec 2, A Somali human rights
group said violence in Mogadishu has killed 5,960 civilians this year.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 12, Pirates freed a
Japanese chemical tanker loaded with highly explosive benzene off the
coast of Somalia, six weeks after seizing the vessel and its crew.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 13, In Somalia mortar
rounds slammed into the biggest market in Mogadishu and gunbattles
erupted across the city, killing 17 people hours after a government
official said radical Muslims had regrouped and were poised to launch a
massive attack.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 14, Mortar shells rained
down on Mogadishu for a second day, killing at least five people. The
African Union's new representative for Somalia said he expected more
peacekeepers to arrive starting this month.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 17, In Somalia mortar
shells slammed into Mogadishu, killing at least 12 people, including a
mother and her three children, and wounding dozens in an increasingly
ferocious Islamic insurgency.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 23, In Somalia a first
contingent of 100 Burundian peacekeepers deployed in the capital,
joining 1,800 Ugandan troops in an African Union force that is still
well short of the personnel strength needed to help restore order.
Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles
attacked an Ethiopian army base in northern Mogadishu, triggering a
deadly nighttime clash that sent stray mortar rounds crashing into
homes. At least five Somalis were killed and eight wounded in the
crossfire.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 24, In southwestern
Somalia gunmen threw grenades at the home of the regional police chief,
killing two of his grandchildren and a bodyguard but not their target.
Burundi deployed a 2nd contingent of 92 peacekeepers to Mogadishu, to
bolster an African Union force.
(AP, 12/24/07)(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 30, In Somalia a mother
and her five children were killed by a mortar round fired during
fighting in Mogadishu between insurgents and Ethiopian troops.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Ayaan Hirsi Ali (b.1969),
Somalia born writer and resident at the American Enterprise Institute
in Washington DC, authored her autobiography “Infidel.” In the
Netherlands it was published under the title “My Freedom.”
(WSJ, 2/3/07, p.P12)(Econ, 2/10/07, p.87)
2008 Jan 17, In Somalia Islamic
militants fired mortar shells and guns in Mogadishu sparking crossfire
with Ethiopian troops that left at least 20 people dead.
(SFC, 1/18/08, p.A4)
2008 Jan 20, The final 210 members
of the first battalion of Burundian soldiers to be deployed in Somalia
as part of an African Union peace-keeping force left Bujumbura for
Mogadishu. Burundi is expected to deploy a total of 1,700 soldiers in
Somalia, alongside around 1,600 troops from Uganda who have been in the
capital Mogadishu since March.
(AFP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 28, In Somalia 3 staff
members of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF-Holland) were killed and one
wounded when their vehicle hit a land mine on a road between the
international staff members' home and the hospital where they worked in
the southern Somali town of Kismayo. In response Doctors Without
Borders evacuated its 87 employees from Somalia.
(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Feb 1, Pirates seized a
Danish-owned tug boat and its six crew members off Somalia's
northeastern coast and demanded ransom. The 115-foot Svitzer Korsakov
was built in St. Petersburg, Russia, and was on its way to Sakhalin
Island in the Far East.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 3, In Somalia a roadside
bomb killed eight civilians and wounded nine others when it exploded
near a minibus full of passengers in war-ravaged Mogadishu.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 5, In northeastern
Somalia grenade attack killed 21 people and wounded 100 in Bossaso,
Puntland.
(AP, 2/6/08)
2008 Feb 12, In northern Somalia
gunmen kidnapped a German aid worker after exchanging fire with his
bodyguards. The next day Somaliland forces freed him from gunmen.
(AP, 2/12/08)(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Mar 3, The US launched an
airstrike on a Somali town held by Islamic extremists to go after a
group of terrorist suspects. Three missiles hit Dobley, a town four
miles from the Kenyan border, destroying a home and seriously injured
eight people.
(AP, 3/3/08)
2008 Mar 5, In Somalia a firefight
between Islamic insurgents and Somali police at a checkpoint outside
the capital has left five people dead.
(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 18, The US listed Shabab,
the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia, as a terrorist
organization.
(www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/news/2008/03/sec-080318-voa01.htm)(Econ,
7/5/08, p.58)
2008 Mar 24, The WHO said polio
transmission has been stopped in Somalia.
(WSJ, 3/25/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 29, In Somalia at least
10 people were killed in Mogadishu after government troops shelled a
market area known to be an insurgent hideout.
(SSFC, 3/30/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 4, Pirate attackers off
Somalia’s coast stormed the 288-foot Le Ponant as it returned without
passengers from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean. French officials
hoped to avoid using force to free the 30 crew members.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Somalia 4 people
were killed in Mogadishu in separate attacks overnight, as violence
raged in the shattered east African nation.
(AFP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 11, French officials said
pirates have freed the 30 crew from Le Ponant, a French luxury sailing
ship, which was seized off Somalia on April 4, and had been tailed by
the French Navy. Helicopter-borne French troops seized 6 of the dozen
hostage takers, after the hostages were freed, and recovered sacks of
money, apparently ransom paid by the ship’s owners.
(AFP, 4/11/08)(SFC, 4/12/08, p.A9)
2008 Apr 13, In Somalia suspected
Islamist insurgents dragged two British nationals and two Kenyans out
of their home in Beledweyn and killed them.
(AFP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 20, Pirates off the
Somali coast, armed with grenade launchers, stormed a Spanish tuna
fishing boat, the Playa de Bakio, with 26 crew members.
(AFP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 22,
Security forces in northern Somalia stormed a hijacked ship carrying
food, rescuing hostages and arresting seven pirates. The seizure was
the latest in a spate of pirate attacks off the increasingly lawless
Somali coast.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 23, In Somalia residents
said four more corpses were found Mogadishu, bringing the death toll
from last weekend's shelling and seizure of small towns by the
Islamists' to at least 103. Amnesty Int’l. Ethiopian soldiers,
stationed in Somalia to bolster the interim government, had killed 21
people and captured dozens of children in a raid on the Al Hidaaya
mosque earlier this week during operations against Islamist insurgents.
(Reuters, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 26, The Spanish
government said the 26 crew members onboard the Playa de Bakio fishing
boat, hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia nearly a week ago,
have been freed. A maritime official said it was freed after a 1.2
million-dollar ransom was paid.
(AP, 4/26/08)(AP, 4/27/08)
2008 Apr 29, An explosion in
southwestern Somalia killed four Ethiopian troops and the subsequent
gunfire killed two civilians.
(AP, 4/29/08)
2008 Apr 30, Ethiopian troops
allied to Somalia's shaky government opened fire on civilians in a
street in southwestern Somalia, killing 13 after an explosion there
killed two soldiers.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 May 1, An Islamic insurgent
group said the US military killed Aden Hashi Ayro, a man believed to be
the head of al-Qaida in Somalia, and 10 others in an airstrike
overnight.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 4, In Somalia Islamic
insurgents killed at least three Ethiopian soldiers during a gunfight
in Mogadishu. Inter-clan fighting in western Somalia, which broke out
the previous evening, left at least 12 people dead and at least 15
others wounded in a land dispute.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 5, In Somalia troops
opened fire and killed at least two people as tens of thousands of
people rioted over high food prices in Mogadishu.
(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 6, In Somalia hundreds of
youths in Mogadishu lobbed stones at shops and cars and set tires
ablaze in a second day of violence over soaring food prices. Amnesty
Int’l. accused Ethiopian troops in Somalia of killing civilians and
committing atrocities, including slitting people's throats, gouging out
eyes and gang-raping women.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 8, In Somalia two police
officers and five insurgents died in the attack when Islamist fighters
fired rocket-propelled grenades and heavy submachine guns at the
heavily guarded K4 district of Mogadishu. Three other insurgents were
captured. Islamist spokesman Abdirahim Issa Adow said fighters killed
eight police and one Islamist fighter died and two were wounded.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 17, Somali pirates
hijacked a Jordanian-flagged ship, called the Victoria, in the latest
in a string of attacks off the lawless coast of Somalia. Islamic
insurgents in Somalia seized a major agricultural center overnight in
Jilib. 2 militia fighters were killed. The UAE-owned ship was released
on May 23.
(AP, 5/17/08)(AP, 5/18/08)(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 21, In southern Somalia
dozens of heavily armed gunmen kidnapped two Italian aid workers and
their Somali colleague.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 23, In Somalia a roadside
bomb exploded near a compound housing African Union (AU) peacekeepers
in Mogadishu, causing some casualties.
(AFP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 25, The Amiya Scan, a
Dutch freighter, was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia. The
ship and its crew of 4 Russians and 5 Filipinos were freed on June 25.
(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 May 26, In Somalia Islamist
insurgents attacked African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu, sparking
fierce clashes that killed at least 13 Somalis, most of them civilians.
(AFP, 5/26/08)
2008 Jun 2, Somalia's opposition
alliance ruled out direct peace talks with the country's transitional
government unless it sets a timetable for the withdrawal of Ethiopian
troops.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 2, Foreign ships gained
UN authorization to enter Somali waters when fighting piracy and armed
robbery. The unanimous UN Security Council resolution made it legal for
foreign navies to chase pirates into Somali waters and if need be sink
them.
(AP,
6/2/08)(www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-07-20-pirates_N.htm)
2008 Jun 8, In Somalia 12
civilians were killed in Mogadishu in a cross fire between troops and
suspected Islamic insurgents.
(SFC, 6/9/08, p.A11)
2008 Jun 9, Somalia’s government
signed an agreement with an opposition alliance calling for an end to
violence and the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops. A leader of the ousted
Islamic movement rejected the UN-brokered deal.
(SFC, 6/10/08, p.A3)(SFC, 6/11/08, p.A15)
2008 Jun 20, The UN reported that
over 40 civilians had been killed this week in Mogadishu, Somalia.
(SFC, 6/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 21, In Somalia Hassan
Mohamed Ali, head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees organization
in Mogadishu, was abducted from his home on the outskirts of Mogadishu.
He was released in late August. He had suffered bullet wounds in the
neck and knee from the kidnapping, but said that he was generally
treated well during his captivity.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Jun 22, In Somalia gunmen
killed Mohamed Hassan Kulmiye, a senior official with the
Mogadishu-based Centre For Research and Dialogue (CRD), one day after
kidnapping a UN official, the latest in a string of attacks against aid
and rights workers.
(AFP, 6/22/08)
2008 Jun 23, Somali gunmen
reportedly seized 4 Europeans from a yacht off the Gulf of Aden and
took to Puntland, a semiautonomous region of northern Somalia. They
demanded $1 million for the release of a German couple, their young son
and a French boat captain. German officials subsequently said no child
was kidnapped. The German couple was released on August 8 following a
$1 million ransom.
(AP, 6/26/08)(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Jul 1, The African Union,
meeting in Egypt, announced that it was extending the mandate of its
force in Somalia for another six months but urged the UN to take over
the peacekeeping mission. The African leaders also called for dialogue
between Zimbabwe's political foes and a national unity government
following President Robert Mugabe's widely discredited reelection.
(AFP, 7/1/08)(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 6, In Somalia gunmen
opened fire on people leaving a mosque in Mogadishu, killing one of the
country’s senior UN officials.
(SFC, 7/7/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 8, A German cargo ship
held captive for 41 days off the coast of Somalia was released and all
aboard were safe and unharmed. A Somali official said the pirates
received a ransom of $750,000. The Lehmann Timber was one of two ships
hijacked on May 30 off the Horn of Africa.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 10, Somali insurgents
killed at least two people in an overnight attack on an army base 15
miles (24 kilometers) northeast of the government headquarters in
Baidoa.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 11, Somali troops shot
and killed 7 civilians in southern Mogadishu after accusing them of
being part of an Islamic insurgency.
(SFC, 7/11/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 13, A World Food Program
contractor was gunned down in Somalia, the 5th agency worker to be
killed this year.
(SFC, 7/16/08,
p.A15)(www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-07-15-somalia_N.htm)
2008 Jul 22, Sheik Hassan Dahir
Aweys took over the Islamist opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation
of Somalia (ARS), which operates in exile in Eritrea.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 23, The African Union
said it was incapable of stabilizing the situation in Somalia and urged
the UN take over peacekeeping operations in the lawless Horn of Africa
country.
(Reuters, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 25, Sheik Hassan Dahir
Aweys, Somalia's new hard-line opposition leader, promised to pacify
his shattered country through Islamic law, warning UN peacekeepers they
will face attack if they deploy and support the government.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, Ahmedou Ould
Abdallah, the UN special envoy for Somalia, sounded the alarm about
rampant illegal fishing and the dumping of toxic waste off the coast of
the lawless nation.
(AFP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 25, Estonia urged the EU
to take stronger action against Somali pirates attacking cargo ships
bound for Europe, after an Estonian sailor was held hostage for 41 days.
(AFP, 7/26/08)
2008 Aug 1, An African Union (AU)
peacekeeper from Uganda was killed when a roadside bomb struck his
convoy in the capital Mogadishu.
(AFP, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Somalia a bomb
hidden under a pile of garbage killed at least 20 people, half of them
women who were sweeping the street in Mogadishu.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 12, Somali pirates
hijacked the Thor Star, a Thai cargo ship with 28 crew members onboard.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 19, Armed pirates seized
the MT Bunga Melati Dua, a Malaysian palm oil tanker with 39 crew, off
the coast of Somalia, the fourth hijacking in a month.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 21, Armed pirates
hijacked a Japanese chemical tanker with 19 crew, an Iranian bulk
carrier with 29 crew, and a German cargo ship with a crew of 9 off
Somalia's coast.
(AP, 8/21/08)(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, In Somalia fighting
between the Islamic militia and a clan militia killed 10 people in the
southern port of Kismayo. Witnesses said a radical Islamic militia
controlled most of Somalia's third-largest city after three days of
fighting in which some 70 people died.
(AP, 8/22/08)(WSJ, 8/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 23, Pirates fired on a
Japanese-operated cargo ship off Somalia and attempted to board the
vessel but failed to seize it.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 23, In Somalia 2 Western
reporters were kidnapped near Mogadishu. The next day the National
Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) named them as Amanda Lindhout, a
Canadian reporter based in Baghdad but freelancing for French
television and Canada's Global National News, and Nigel Brennan, a
freelance Australian photojournalist. Both were released after 15
months and arrived in Kenya on Nov 25, 2009.
(Reuters, 8/24/08)(AP, 11/26/09)
2008 Aug 24, In Somalia the
Shabab, the former military wing of the Islamic courts, and local clan
factions took control of the southern port of Kismayo. Muktar Robow, a
Shabab commander, wanted to merge with al-Qaeda.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.56)
2008 Aug 26, A Maltese fishing
trawler rescued the migrants. Authorities said the survivors first told
the fishermen that 10 people were missing, but later said as many as 70
people from Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan made the sea voyage with them.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 29, Pirates, believed to
be Somali, hijacked the Malaysian MT Bunga Melati 5 tanker and its 41
crew members off Yemen's coast in the Gulf of Aden. It was the second
tanker owned by MISC Berhard to be hijacked in the gulf in the last 10
days.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Sep 3, In Somalia mortar
shells slammed into Mogadishu as insurgents vowed to intensify attacks
during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. At least 4 people were killed.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 3, An Egyptian cargo ship
with 25 crew was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia,
making it the 10th vessel to be hijacked in the area since July 20.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, Malaysia said it is
dispatching three navy vessels to the Gulf of Aden to protect its
merchant ships following a sharp surge in pirate attacks off the coast
of Somalia.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 9, A gunman killed an
outspoken Somali lawmaker in the provincial town of Baidoa, the latest
in a series of attacks in the lawless African nation.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, Pirates hijacked a
South Korean bulk carrier with 22 crew off Somalia's coast but were
thwarted in a separate attempt to seize a Greek ship. The crew and
vessel were released on Oct 16 with no comment on ransom.
(AP, 9/10/08)(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Sep 14, In Somalia at least
six people, including an African Union (AU) peacekeeper, were killed
Sunday in two separate incidents in Mogadishu.
(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 15, In Somalia an African
Union peacekeeper was killed in a roadside bomb explosion in Mogadishu,
the 2nd AU member to be killed in there in as many days.
(AP, 9/15/08)
2008 Sep 15, French troops stormed
a yacht hijacked by Somali pirates, killing one, capturing six others
and freeing their two French hostages, who had been held since Sep 2.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 18, Armed pirates
hijacked a Greek ship with 25 crew members off Somalia, bringing to 55
the number of reported attacks in the lawless sea lane of the African
region.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 21, Pirates in speedboats
hijacked a Greek bulk carrier with 19 crew members off eastern Somalia.
On Dec 8 Somali pirates freed the 19-man crew and MV Captain Stephanos,
the Greek-owned and Bahamas-flagged bulk carrier.
(AP, 9/22/08)(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Sep 21, Somali refugees
abandoned by smugglers in the dangerous waters of the Gulf of Aden were
rescued. They had drifted for 18 days, and at least 52 died before the
group was rescued off the Yemeni coast. Seventy-one people survived the
journey.
(AP, 9/28/08)
2008 Sep 22, In Somalia mortar
rounds slammed into a market in Mogadishu, killing up to 30 people
including children and overwhelming hospitals with dozens of wounded in
the worst fighting in months.
(AP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 23, Heavy fighting
between Somali insurgents and African Union forces erupted in southern
Mogadishu, leaving at least seven civilians dead.
(AFP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 25, Pirates seized the
530-foot, Ukrainian cargo vessel, MV Faina, with 21 people aboard off
eastern Somalia. Russia's navy soon sent a warship to Somalia's coast a
day after pirates seized the Ukrainian vessel loaded with 33 tanks,
ammunition and 3 Russian crew members. The ITAR-Tass news agency said
the military equipment had been sold to Kenya. It was later reported
that the arms were destined for southern Sudan and that Kenya’s
cooperation would be rewarded in the future with cheap oil. The shipped
was released on Feb 5, 2009, following a ransom of $3.2 million.
(AP, 9/26/08)(SFC, 9/27/08, p.A5)(Econ, 10/4/08,
p.49)(AP, 2/5/09)
2008 Sep 26, Somali pirates
hijacked the Liberian-flagged oil tanker MV Genius, a Greek-owned ship
with 19 crew. The MV Genius was ransomed and released on Nov 21.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Sep 29, Somali Islamist
insurgents attacked government forces and African Union peacekeepers
overnight in Mogadishu. At least four people were killed in the
clashes. Somalia pirates released Malaysia’s palm oil tanker, MT Bunga
Melati 2, two days after its first vessel was released.
(AP, 9/30/08)(AFP, 9/29/08)
2008 Oct 1, In Somalia at least
seven civilians were killed in a mortar fire exchange that erupted when
an African Union (AU) plane landed at Mogadishu airport in defiance of
a "ban" by an Islamist militia. 28 Somali migrants died after their
boat capsized off the town of Shabwa because of strong wind and high
waves. A Yemen coast guard patrol reached the boat and rescued 23 other
migrants.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 3, The United Nations
said fighting has killed at least 80 civilians in Somalia's capital
over the last two weeks. More than 100 people have been injured. UN
humanitarian office spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said nearly half of
Somalia's 8.3 million people were in need of food and other assistance.
(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 8, Pirates in Somalia
released 15 Filipino seamen and four other crewmen of a chemical tanker
hijacked nearly two months ago, but were still holding 67 other
Filipino sailors.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 9, NATO joined a growing
international force to protect vessels off Somalia's perilous coast,
sending military ships to the treacherous waters where pirates are
negotiating the release of an arms-laden tanker.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 9, Somali pirates freed
20 Filipino seamen from a hijacked ship they held for more than 80
days, as the Philippine government doubled the pay of sailors passing
through pirate-infested international waters. 47 Filipinos on three
other ships were still in the hands of Somali pirates. Pirates also
released 29 Iranian crew members and their cargo ship hijacked off
Somalia's coast in late July.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, Yemeni officials and
the UN refugee agency said about 100 migrants from Somalia were missing
and feared drowned in the treacherous waters off the coast of Yemen
after smugglers forced them overboard 3 miles off Yemen’s coast. 47
were believed to have survived.
(AP, 10/10/08)(SFC, 10/11/08, p.A10)
2008 Oct 10, Armed pirates off
Somalia hijacked a Greek chemical tanker with a crew of 20 flying a
Panamanian flag.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 12, Somali forces from
semiautonomous Puntland unsuccessfully raided a hijacked ships. 2
pirates were killed.
(WSJ, 10/13/08, p.A15)
2008 Oct 13, In Somalia Islamist
insurgents attacked African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu, triggering
fierce clashes that killed a civilian and wounded five others.
(AFP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 14, Off the Somali coast
a Panamanian-flagged vessel and its 11 crew members, nine Syrians and
two Somalis, were freed after a gunbattle in which one Puntland soldier
was killed and three wounded. The 10 pirates, who had held the ship
since Oct 9, surrendered when they ran out of ammunition.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, Burundi said it has
completed its deployment of another 850 soldiers to Somalia, bringing
to about 3,400 the total number of African Union peacekeepers stationed
there. Burundi had already deployed some 850 soldiers to Somalia as
part of AMISOM (African mission in Somalia).
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 15, Armed pirates
hijacked a Japanese-operated bulk carrier with 21 Filipino crew members
in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia. The ship African Sanderling was
released on January 12, 2009.
(AP, 10/15/08)(AP, 1/13/09)
2008 Oct 16, In Somalia at least
23 people were killed in Mogadishu when insurgents attacked camps
housing African Union and Ethiopian troops, triggering heavy clashes.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 16, Somali pirates
released 22 sailors they kidnapped on Sep 10, after the South Korean
ship owner paid a ransom. Koo Ja-Woo, an executive director of J and J
Trust, which owns the ship, said his company paid an unspecified sum to
the pirates through a foreign middleman with experience in dealing with
the seizure of ships.
(AFP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 16, The European
Commission announced 15 million euros (20 million dollars) of emergency
food aid for victims of drought and soaring food prices in five east
African countries. The biggest share will go to Ethiopia and Somalia
and smaller amounts to Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti.
(AFP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 18, Somali pirates
released a Thai ship after receiving a ransom.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 19, In Somalia 3 gunmen
shot the employee of the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, as he walked home
in the southern town of Hudur.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 21, A Somali official
said Somali gunmen acting as freelance coast guards freed a hijacked
Indian dhow and its 13 crew members after a battle with pirates off the
country's northern coast. The cargo-laden vessel was en route to
Somalia from Asia when it was seized over the weekend.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 23, The French Navy
captured nine pirates near the Gulf of Aden finding anti-tank missiles,
other weapons and ship boarding gear on the boats. A Somali pirate
warned that if a hijacked Ukrainian arms ship was attacked the ship's
20-man crew would be killed.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 23, Russia, which sent a
warship to Somalia's coast to combat pirates, asked the African nation
for carte blanche to use force in its territorial waters.
(Reuters, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 25, A gunman shot dead a
Somali woman employee in the latest of a string of attacks on the
humanitarian community. Duniya Sheik Daud was the 15th aid worker
killed so far this year in Somalia.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 27, In Somalia Aisha
Ibrahim Duhulow, a 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped, was
stoned to death in Kismayo after being accused of adultery by Islamic
militants.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Oct 28-2009 Oct 29, In
northern Somalia 5 suicide car bombs attacks killed 28 people in
Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, and in Bosasso, Puntland. Somali
authorities arrested Cleric Sheik Mohamed Ismail in connection with the
attacks. Shirwa Ahmed, one of the suicide bombers, was an American
citizen and former resident of Minnesota.
(AP, 10/30/08)(SFC, 10/30/08, p.A4)(Econ, 2/28/09,
p.49)
2008 Oct 29, Pirates hijacked the
Turkish freighter MV Yasa Neslihan with a crew of 20 off the coast of
Somalia. Pirates freed the Yasa Neslihan freighter on Dec 6 after
paying a ransom.
(SFC, 10/31/08, p.A8)(AP, 1/7/09)
2008 Nov 2, The bodies of 60
Somali and Ethiopian migrants washed up on the shores of southern Yemen
over the last three days.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 5, In Somalia 6 employees
of the French aid group Action Against Hunger were kidnapped in the
town of Dhusamareb. They included four non-Somali workers and two
chauffeurs.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 7, Pirates near Somalia
hijacked a Danish cargo ship with 13 crew members, which consisted of
Russians and Ukrainians. The CEC Future was released on January
16 following a ransom payment by Clipper Projects.
(AP, 11/8/08)(AP, 1/16/09)
2008 Nov 10, Gunmen in northern
Kenya seized two Italian Catholic nuns from a church before dawn and
took them across the border into a Somali region largely controlled by
Islamist insurgents. The nuns were free on February 19, 2009.
(AP, 11/10/08)(AP, 2/19/09)
2008 Nov 10, Pirates near Somalia
hijacked the MT Stolt Strength. a Philippines chemical tanker with 23
crew, bringing the total number of attacks in waters off the African
nation this year to 83. The ship was freed on April 21.
(AP, 11/11/08)(AFP, 4/21/09)
2008 Nov 12, In Somalia the
Islamist al-Shabab militia, that the US calls a terror organization,
seized Merka, a key port town, giving it control of most of southern
Somalia and sidelining the weak government. That night more than 100
heavily armed fighters entered Elasha, 11 miles (18 kilometers)
southwest of Mogadishu, after the pro-government militia fled.
(AP, 11/12/08)(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 12, Pirates commandeered
the Karagol, a Turkish chemical tanker, off the coast of Yemen. 14
Turkish personnel were aboard the tanker. The Russian frigate
Neustrashimy and the British frigate Cumberland foiled pirates who
fired automatic weapons toward a Danish ship and twice tried to seize
it in the Gulf of Aden.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 15, In Somalia fighters
of al-Shabab took control of the port town of Barawe without a fight
after the government's allies left as soon as they heard the fighters
were on their way.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 15, Gunmen hijacked a
freighter with 23 crew off the coast of Somalia. The crew of the
Japanese-owned Chemstar Venus consisted of five South Koreans and 18
Filipinos. Somali pirates hijacked the Sirius Star, a newly
commissioned supertanker, more than 450 nautical miles southeast of
Mombasa, Kenya, along with its 25-member crew. The ship, owned by Saudi
oil company Aramco, was capable of carrying about 2 million barrels of
oil.
(AP, 11/16/08)(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 16, Somali pirates
freed another vessel after securing a ransom and a Russian frigate
repelled an attack on a Saudi ship.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 17, In Somalia witnesses
said African Union (AU) peacekeepers from Burundi have started moving
into positions usually manned by Ethiopian troops in the capital
Mogadishu, as part of the ongoing Djibouti peace process.
(AFP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 18, Separate bands of
pirates seized a Thai fishing trawler with 16 crew members and an
Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25 in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates on
the trawler then apparently fired on the Indian naval frigate Tabar.
The Indians, believing the trawler to be a pirate "mother ship,"
returned fire turning the Ekawat Nava 5 into a massive fireball and
killing 14 of the 15 crew as well as the pirates. The Tabar then chased
two attack boats into the night. A surviving sailor spent six days
adrift in the shark-infested ocean before another ship picked him up.
The Iranian vessel was released on Jan 9, 2009.
(AP, 11/19/08)(AP, 11/26/08)(SFC, 11/26/08,
p.A3)(AP, 1/10/09)(AP, 6/5/09)
2008 Nov 20, Egypt held emergency
talks with nations bordering the Red Sea on how to stop Somali gunmen
from hijacking ships. Somali pirates had already seized at least 80
ships off the Horn of Africa this year.
(SFC, 11/21/08, p.A13)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to impose sanctions on pirates, arms
smugglers, and perpetrators of instability in Somalia in a fresh
attempt to help end years of lawlessness in the Horn of Africa nation.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 21, Somali security
forces and Islamic insurgents engaged in one of the fiercest gunbattles
in recent weeks in Mogadishu, killing at least 17 people and wounding
six.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 21, Somali pirates
released a hijacked Greek-owned tanker with all 19 crew safe and the
oil cargo intact. The Liberian-flagged tanker MV Genius had been seized
on Sept. 26. The ship's management company said a ransom was paid but
did not say how much.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 24, Shipping officials
from around the world called for a military blockade along the coast of
Somalia to intercept pirate vessels heading out to sea.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 26, In northern Somalia 2
foreign journalists were kidnapped while doing a story on the rampant
piracy in the region. The Britain and journalist and his Spanish
counterpart were released on Jan 4, after almost six weeks in captivity
in Somalia's breakaway Puntland state.
(AP, 11/26/08)(AFP, 1/4/09)
2008 Nov 28, Somali pirates
hijacked the chemical tanker chemical tanker M/V BISCAGLIA with 25
Indian and 3 Bangladeshi crew members. A helicopter rescued three
British security guards who had jumped into the sea. The Liberian
flagged ship operated out of Singapore. The ship was freed on Jan 23
following a $1 million ransom.
(AP, 11/28/08)(AP, 1/24/09)(WSJ, 1/31/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 30, Pirates chased and
shot at the M/S Nautica, a US cruise liner with more than 1,000 people
on board, but failed to hijack the vessel as it sailed along a corridor
patrolled by international warships.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 2, A Burundi soldier
serving with African Union forces in Somalia was killed in fighting
with Islamist insurgents in the war-torn capital Mogadishu.
(AFP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 3, In Yemen the bodies of
24 Somalis washed ashore following an accident involving a boat trying
to smuggle migrants. Strong winds pushed the bodies on to beaches over
the last 2 days near the town of al-Qasha'a. 184 more Somalis involved
in the accident managed to swim ashore.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, In Somalia 20 men and
women graduated from medical school in Mogadishu, something that nobody
in Somalia has done in nearly two decades.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 4, The Danish navy
intercepted and sunk a suspected pirate vessel drifting off Somalia. 7
men were handed over to authorities in Yemen but were not immediately
suspected of any crime.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 5, In Somalia 12 people
were killed as mortar shells rained down on homes and a small
market in Mogadishu.
(SFC, 12/6/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 8, The EU formally
launches its anti-piracy task mission off the Somali coast, preparing
to take over from the NATO flotilla guarding one of the world's most
important shipping lanes.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 9, Ethiopian troops were
reported to be pouring into neighboring Somalia to fight radical
Islamists who have taken over much of the country, raising fears of
more violence in a country fighting a deadly insurgency and piracy.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 10, The US proposed to
track down Somali pirates not only at sea, but on land and in Somalian
air space with cooperation from the African country's weak UN-backed
government.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 13, The Indian navy
captured 23 pirates who threatened a merchant vessel in the lawless
waters of the Gulf of Aden, where dozens of ships have come under
attack by gunmen in recent months. The pirates were from Somalia and
Yemen. A German helicopter thwarted another attack on a freighter being
chased by speed boats off Yemen.
(AP, 12/13/08)(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.A20)
2008 Dec 16, Somalia's UN-backed
government crumbled further as the president defied parliament and
Kenya announced sanctions against him in a strong public rebuke.
(AP, 12/16/08)
2008 Dec 16, Somali pirates
hijacked a tugboat belonging to total SA off the Yemeni coast. On
August 3 pirates freed the tugboat TB Masindra 7, its attached
Indonesian barge ADM1 and its 11 Indonesian sailors after a ransom was
paid to end the second-longest hostage saga off the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 12/16/08)(AFP, 8/3/09)
2008 Dec 16, The UN Security
Council approved land and air attacks on pirate bases in Somalia.
(SFC, 12/17/08, p.A14)
2008 Dec 17, An international
anti-piracy force thwarted the attempted takeover of a Chinese cargo
ship off the Somali coast, sending in attack helicopters that fired on
the bandits and forced them to abandon the ship they had boarded. The
Indian navy handed over 23 pirates, caught at sea on Dec 13, to
authorities in Yemen.
(AP, 12/17/08)
2008 Dec 20, China said it will
send two destroyers and a supply vessel to the seas off Somalia to back
international efforts to fight piracy.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 20, Iranian state radio
said Iran has sent a warship to the coast of Somalia to protect its
cargo ships against piracy.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 22, A Sudanese official
said at least 18,000 Eritrean and Somali refugees have arrived in Sudan
since the start of the year, and the government is struggling to
provide them with aid.
(Reuters, 12/22/08)
2008 Dec 24, A spokesman
said Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf has decided to resign, in a
move the African Union said would be positive for the peace process in
the Horn of Africa nation. Mohamed Mohamud Guled, named prime minister
last week, resigned, saying his controversial appointment was
preventing the feuding government from fighting a strengthening Islamic
insurgency.
(Reuters, 12/24/08)(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 25, A German military
helicopter chased away pirates who were trying to board an Egyptian
ship off the coast of Somalia. One of the ship's crew was shot in the
attack.
(AP, 12/25/08)
2008 Dec 26, Chinese warships,
armed with special forces, guided missiles and helicopters, set sail
for anti-piracy duty off Somalia, the first time the communist nation
has sent ships on a mission that could involve fighting so far beyond
its territorial waters.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 29, Abdullahi Yusuf, the
president of Somalia's UN-backed government, resigned amid deepening
international pressure, a move that could usher in more chaos as a
strengthening Islamic insurgency scrambles for power.
(AP, 12/29/08)
2008 Dec 30, In Somalia mortars
slammed into a busy market in Mogadishu, as the country's weak
government crumbled and the impending pullout of allied Ethiopian
troops raised fears that Islamic insurgents might seize the opportunity
to take over.
(AP, 12/30/08)
2009 Jan 1, Somali pirates seized
the Blue Star, an Egyptian cargo ship, and its 28 crewmembers. A
Malaysian military helicopter saved an Indian tanker from being
hijacked in the new year's first attacks by pirates in the dangerous
Gulf of Aden. A crew of the French warship "PM L'Her" dispatch boat
intercepted two speedboats carrying 8 Somali pirates as they were
preparing to board a Panamanian cargo ship. The Blue Star and its crew
of 28 were freed on March 5 after a ransom was dropped from a plane.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/2/09)(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Jan 2, Crewmen fired high
pressure water jets to fight off heavily armed Somali pirates trying to
board a Greek oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden in the fourth such attack
since the start of the year. A Chinese cargo ship evaded two pirate
boats chasing it in the Gulf of Aden.
(AP, 1/2/09)(AFP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 3, In Somalia Islamic
insurgents appeared to be scrambling for power, taking over several
police stations in the capital as Ethiopian troops who have been
propping up the government began to pull out.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 4, A French warship
foiled attempts by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden to seize two
cargo vessels and intercepted 19 people.
(AFP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 6, In Somalia 3 masked
gunmen fatally shot a Somali aid worker. The UN envoy to Somalia said
the UN should create a Baghdad-style Green Zone in the African country
so he can base all his aid workers there. Aid workers Keiko Akahane
(32), a Japanese doctor, and Dutchman nurse Willem Sools (27), were
released after being held by Somali gunmen for 108 days.
(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 8, In Somalia
gunmen fatally shot a UN World Food program worker during a food
distribution, the second staff member killed this week.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, The US Navy said a new
international force to battle pirates off the Somali coast is being
formed under American command in a bid to focus more military resources
to protect one of the world's key shipping lanes.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 9, Somali pirates
released the MV Sirius Star, an oil-laden Saudi supertanker seized on
Nov 15, after receiving a $3 million ransom. Five of the Somali pirates
drowned with their share of the $3 million ransom after their small
boat capsized.
(AP, 1/9/09)(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 9, Somali pirates
released a captured Iranian-chartered cargo ship. The ship Delight was
carrying 36 tons of wheat when it was attacked in the Gulf of Aden Nov.
18 and seized by pirates. All 25 crew were in good health and the
vessel sailed toward Iran.
(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 11, In central Somalia
clashes between Islamist militias killed at least 29 people and wounded
more than 50 others. It was the latest sign of divisions within an
Islamist insurgency the US government says has links to al-Qaida.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 12, In Somalia Islamist
insurgents fired mortar rounds at the presidential palace in Mogadishu.
At least 13 people were killed in 2 attacks. The United States
circulated a draft resolution calling for a UN peacekeeping force to be
deployed in Somalia to replace a small African Union force, but leaving
the Security Council to make a final decision by June 1.
(AP, 1/13/09)(SFC, 1/12/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 13, Ethiopia handed over
security duties in neighboring Somalia to a joint force of Somali
government security forces and Islamic militiamen, a shift some fear
will leave a power vacuum in the lawless African nation.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 13, A Russian warship
helped foil an attack on a Dutch container ship by suspected Somali
pirates in the dangerous Gulf of Aden.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, In Somalia Islamic
insurgents fired mortar rounds at the presidential palace and clashed
with government forces, leaving at least five civilians dead a day
after Ethiopian troops handed over security duties.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 15, The last Ethiopian
troops backing Somalia's fragile government left Mogadishu, as Islamist
forces took control of bases that the Ethiopians had vacated. An
Islamist court under Shabab publicly executed politician Abdirahman
Ahmed (55) to death by firing squad for showing sympathy for
Christianity.
(AP, 1/15/09)(Econ, 2/28/09,
p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdirahman_Ahmed)
2009 Jan 16, The UN Security
Council unanimously adopted a resolution expressing its intention to
establish a UN peacekeeping force in Somalia, but putting off a
decision for several months in order to assess the volatile situation
in the Horn of Africa nation.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, Near Yemen hundreds
of people were missing and feared dead after three boats carrying about
400 migrants from Somalia capsized.
(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 20, Abdullahi Yusuf (75),
Somalia's former president and an ex-warlord who was forced from
government, arrived in Yemen in a private jet from his impoverished
homeland, seeking political asylum. Islamic insurgents and Somali
forces clashed in Mogadishu, killing at least 14 people in the latest
sign the Islamists are making inroads into the few areas the UN-backed
government still controls.
(AP, 1/21/09)(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Somalia 17 people
were killed in Mogadishu by a suicide car bomb targeting African Union
peacekeepers. The dead included a police officer, who tried to stop the
suicide bomber’s car. A gunfight between peacekeepers and insurgents
followed left 5 more dead.
(AFP, 1/24/09)(AFP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 28, Japan's defense
minister ordered the dispatch of ships to fight pirates off the shores
of Somalia, joining other countries in the battle against the outlaws.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 29, Somali pirates
hijacked a German gas tanker, the MV Longchamp, and its 13-man crew in
the Gulf of Aden, the third ship captured off the Horn of Africa this
month. The ship was released along with its 13 crew members on March 28.
(AP, 1/29/09)(SFC, 1/30/09, p.A16)(AP, 3/28/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Somalia moderate
Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed was sworn in. The next day in
a published interview he called for a united front against violent
extremists and signaled his intent to try to bring together the
country's feuding Islamic factions.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 2, In Somalia AU
peacekeepers opened fire on civilian vehicles and fatally shot 18
people after an AU vehicle was hit by a land mine in Mogadishu.
(SFC, 2/3/09, p.A3)
2009 Feb 3, The hardline Somali
Islamist group Shebab called on its fighters to intensify their holy
war against African Union (AU) peacekeepers.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 4, In Somalia gunmen
killed Said Tahlil Ahmed, the director of the country’s largest media
company, HornAfrik, at a market in Mogadishu. Three Somali Canadians
had established HornAfrik in 1999.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 5, Somali pirates said
that they were freeing, a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and other heavy
weapons after receiving a $3.2 million ransom. The MV Faina was seized
last September 25. The Kenyan government claimed to the cargo, which
included 33 Soviet-designed battle tanks.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Somalia at least
three civilians were killed when insurgents attacked African Union
forces and government troops in the strife-torn capital Mogadishu.
(AFP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 11, Off Somalia the USS
Vella Gulf detained seven suspected pirates, the Navy's first arrests
since it established an anti-piracy task force this year.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, Off Somalia an
American helicopter from the USS Vella Gulf fired warning shots at
gunmen in two skiffs that had opened fire and tried to board the
Indian-flagged vessel Premdivya. US forces searched the skiff and found
weapons including rocket-propelled grenades, then took nine suspected
pirates aboard the American ship. A Russian nuclear-powered heavy
missile cruiser, Peter The Great, detained 10 Somali pirates closing in
on an Iranian-flagged fishing trawler. The men, were caught with
rifles, grenade-launchers, illegal narcotics and a large sum of money.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 14, In Somalia
legislators approved a former leader's son as the country’s new prime
minister. Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke faced the task of uniting a
fractious government besieged by Islamic insurgents that control most
of the country.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Somalia hardline
Islamist militia attacked African Union forces in Mogadishu, killing
one civilian and wounding two others.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 22, Gunmen in northern
Somalia kidnapped a Pakistani. Islamic insurgents claimed to have
carried out a suicide attack on an African Union peacekeeping base in
Mogadishu. 11 Burundi peacekeepers in Somalia were killed and another
20 injured in a suicide attack by a Somali contractor who delivered
supplies and had easy access to the base.
(AP, 2/22/09)(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Somalia an
artillery shell killed two schoolchildren in Mogadishu during the
second day of fighting between AU peacekeepers and Islamist insurgents.
The death toll in the worst fighting for weeks reached 81.
(AP, 2/25/09)(Reuters, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 25, Danish and Chinese
warships stopped pirates attacking two different vessels off Somalia's
coast.
(AP, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 28, Somalia's new Pres.
Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed said the government and an Islamic insurgent
group have reached a cease-fire deal, days after dozens of civilians
were killed in fighting in Mogadishu.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, The yacht Serenity,
with two crew from the Seychelles on board, left the islands en route
to Madagascar and disappeared. One of the crew called his family on
March 24, saying he was being held by Somali pirates and begging for
help.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Feb, The UN estimated that 10
million people still lived in Somalia.
(Econ, 2/28/09, p.49)
2009 Mar 10, Germany's navy handed
over nine suspected Somali pirates to Kenyan authorities and they will
be taken to a court to face charges. The nine were arrested March 3
after they attacked the Hamburg-based MV Courier cargo ship.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 11, The African Union
extended by three months the mandate of its peacekeeping mission in
Somalia, and called on the UN to lift its arms embargo there.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 15, In central Somalia
clashes between rival Islamist militias killed at least 14 people over
the last 2 days. Most of those killed were fighters for the al-Shabab
group or its rival Ahlu-sunah Wal-jamea.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 16, In southern Somalia
gunmen seized four UN workers, the latest in a series of attacks on aid
workers in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation.
(AP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 19, Al-Qaida's chief
Osama bin Laden urged Somali militants to overthrow the country's new
president in a new Web audiotape, trying to torpedo a new push for
peace in a lawless African nation where many fear al-Qaida is gaining a
foothold.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 19, Pirates off the coast
of Somalia seized the St. Vincent-flagged Titan, with 24 crew members
on board, including a Greek captain and 3 Greek crew members. A Turkish
warship foiled a pirate attack on a Turkish commercial ship in the Gulf
of Aden.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, The UN Security
Council gave a stamp of approval to Somalia's new unity government and
urged increased international aid to African Union (AU) peacekeepers
trying to contain the violence in the lawless country.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 22, Off the coast of
Somalia pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons
at Japanese, Greek and Hong Kong cargo ships but fled after the ships
took evasive maneuvers.
(AP, 3/23/09)
2009 Mar 25, Hundreds of Somalis
demonstrated in Baidoa against Islamist fighters after they imposed a
ban on leaf qat, a popular narcotic.
(SFC, 3/26/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 25, The MT Nipayia, a
Greek-owned and Panama registered ship with a crew of 19, was hijacked
450 miles east of Somalia’s south coast.
(AP, 3/27/09)(WSJ, 3/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 26, Somalia's new
interior minister was wounded by a roadside bomb in an attack that
killed his bodyguard and wounded two others. The moderate Islamist
pledged to seek reconciliation with his attackers, widely believed to
be hardline fighters.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, The MT Bow Asir, a
Norwegian tanker with a crew of 27, was hijacked 250 miles east of the
south coast of Somalia.
(AP, 3/27/09)(WSJ, 3/27/09, p.A8)
2009 Mar 29, The int’l.
anti-piracy task force captured 7 pirates in the Gulf of Aden after
they opened fire on a German naval supply ship.
(SFC, 3/31/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 1, A tourist yacht and
its crew of seven was hijacked by Somali pirates near the Seychelles
islands off Africa's east coast.
(AP, 4/2/09)
2009 Apr 4, Somali pirates seized
a 20,000-ton German container vessel, the Hansa Stavanger and its
24-member crew, in their latest attack on the Indian Ocean's busy
commercial shipping lanes. The ship and crew were released on August 3
as pirates boasted $2.75 million in ransom.
(AP, 4/5/09)(AP, 4/6/09)(AP, 7/18/09)(Econ, 8/22/09,
p.53)
2009 Apr 5, In Somalia an
overnight mortar attack aimed at troops and peacekeepers in Mogadishu
killed a child and wounded six other people, including 4 of the dead
child's siblings. Somali pirates hijacked a small Yemeni boat in the
Indian Ocean.
(AP, 4/5/09)(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 6, Somali pirates seized
the Taiwanese ship Win Far 161 with 29 crew onboard near an island in
the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. A 32,000-ton British-owned bulk
carrier, the Malaspina Castle, was also hijacked in the Gulf of Aden.
Pirates soon began using the vessel as a base for attacking other
commercial ships.
(AP, 4/6/09)(AP, 8/27/09)
2009 Apr 8, Somali pirates
hijacked a US-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members onboard.
The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa,
Kenya. The pirates took Capt. Richard Phillips hostage after they
hijacked the Maersk Alabama, then fled the cargo ship as the vessel's
crew overpowered them.
(AP, 4/8/09)(AP, 4/9/09)
2009 Apr 9, FBI hostage
negotiators joined US Navy efforts to free an American ship captain
held captive on a lifeboat by Somali pirates. A US destroyer and a spy
plane kept close watch in the high-seas standoff near the Horn of
Africa. Capt. Richard Phillips made a desperate escape attempt but was
recaptured.
(AP, 4/9/09)(AP, 4/10/09)
2009 Apr 10, In Somalia Islamist
militants attacked African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu overnight,
sparking heavy exchanges that killed two civilians.
(AFP, 4/10/09)
2009 Apr 10, France's navy freed a
sailboat seized off Somalia last week by pirates, but one of the
hostages was killed. Pirates had seized the sailboat carrying Florent
Lemacon, his wife, 3-year-old son and two friends off the Somali coast
a week ago. Two pirates were killed, and Lemacon died in an exchange of
fire as he tried to duck down the hatch.
(AP, 4/11/09)
2009 Apr 11, Somali pirates
hijacked the Italian-flagged tugboat Buccaneer, an American-owned
tugboat, with 16 crew in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates abandoned the
ship on August 9 and all crew members were freed. No random was paid.
(AP, 4/11/09)(AP, 4/26/09)(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Apr 12, US Navy SEAL snipers
on a destroyer shot and killed three Somali pirates and plucked an
unharmed Capt. Richard Phillips to safety. A fourth pirate surrendered.
His rescue sparked concern for other hostages and fears that the stakes
have been raised for future hijackings in the Indian Ocean shipping
lane.
(AP, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 14, Somali pirates
captured two more nautical trophies to match the two ships they seized
a day or two earlier. The MV Sea Horse, a Lebanese-owned cargo ship,
was attacked and captured by pirates in three or four speedboats. That
hijacking came only hours after the Greek-managed MV Irene E.M. was
seized in a rare overnight attack by pirates. Somali pirates also
hijacked two Egyptian fishing boats in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's
northern coast, which maritime officials said had a total of 36 crew.
It was not exactly clear if those ships were hijacked April 12 or 13.
The Liberty Sun, a US flagged cargo ship, repelled a pirate attack off
the Somali coast. The MV Irene and 22 Filipino sailors were released on
Sep 14.
(AP, 4/14/09)(WSJ, 4/15/09, p.A8)(AFP, 9/15/09)
2009 Apr 15, French forces
detained 11 pirates during an assault on a pirate "mother ship" and
thwarted a pirate attack on a Liberian-registered vessel.
(AP, 4/15/09)
2009 Apr 18, Somali
parliamentarians unanimously endorsed a proposal to implement Islamic
law in the Horn of Africa nation.
(AP, 4/18/09)
2009 Apr 18, Somali pirates
attacked two ships off the Horn of Africa, seizing the Belgian-flagged
Pompei carrying 10 crew. NATO forces intervened in the other assault,
chasing the pirates down. Dutch commandos then freed 20 fishermen on a
Yemeni dhow hijacked earlier. Seven pirates attempted to attack the
Norwegian-flagged MV Front Ardenne but fled after crew took evasive
maneuvers and alerted warships in the area. NATO warships and
helicopters pursued the Somali pirates for seven hours after they
attacked the tanker, and the high-speed chase only ended when warning
shots were fired at the pirates' skiff. NATO forces boarded the skiff,
where they found a rocket-propelled grenade, and interrogated, disarmed
and released the pirates. The Pompei and its crew were released on June
28.
(AP, 4/18/09)(AP, 4/19/09)(AP, 6/28/09)
2009 Apr 19, In central Somalia
two Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) workers were
seized by around 25 gunmen traveling in two trucks. Dutch national Kees
Keus (49) and Belgian Jorgen Stassijns (40) were released on April 28.
(AP, 4/19/09)(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 Apr 20, Somali pirates in two
boats with about six pirates each attacked the Maltese-flagged MV
Atlantica, before the ship took evasive maneuvers and escaped in the
Gulf of Aden without damages or injury. Other pirates released a
Togo-flagged, Lebanese-owned ship after they found out it was supposed
to pick up food destined for Somalia. The MV Sea Horse was hijacked
April 14 with 19 crew as it headed to India to pick up more than 7,300
tons of food destined for Somalia. The pirates also were paid "a
reward" of $100,000 by two Somali businessmen for freeing the aid ship.
(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 21, Somali pirates freed
a chemical tanker and its 23 Filipino crew members after holding them
hostage in the Gulf of Aden for more than five months. The MT Stolt
Strength was seized Nov. 10, 2008.
(AP, 4/21/09)
2009 Apr 21, In a New York court
Somali pirate Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse (18) was charged with piracy and
other crimes relating to the Apr 8-Apr 12 siege of the Maersk Alabama.
(WSJ, 4/22/09, p.A3)
2009 Apr 22, Somalia's foreign
minister urged the international community to help its fledgling
government set up a coast guard to fight the rampant piracy that has
disrupted shipping in one of the world's busiest waterways.
(AP, 4/22/09)
2009 Apr 23, The EU development
commissioner said an international conference has already pledged over
250 million dollars to help Somalia improve its security.
(AP, 4/23/09)
2009 Apr 24, Somalia's hardline
Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys ruled out talks on with the
government until African Union peacekeepers withdraw from the war-torn
country.
(AFP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 25, In Somalia mortars
fired toward the parliament missed the building but hit a police unit
inside the compound as well as a residential neighborhood, killing at
least 7 people. Armed fighters attacked two African Union peacekeeping
bases in Mogadishu, and a witness said he saw the bodies of three
civilians killed.
(AP, 4/25/09)(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 25, Hijackers seized the
Maltese-flagged MV Patriot, a German-owned ship with a crew of 17, in
the pirate-infested waters between Somalia and Yemen. An Italian cruise
ship with 1,500 people on board fended off a pirate attack far off the
coast of Somalia when its Israeli private security forces exchanged
fire with the bandits.
(AP, 4/25/09)(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 26, Pirates attacked 4
Yemeni tankers escorted by a Yemeni coast guard boat on their way to
Aden. 3 of the ships escaped and coast guards captured five pirates and
wounded two others. The Turkish cruiser Ariva 3, with two British and
four Japanese crew aboard, survived a pirate attack near the Yemeni
island of Jabal Zuqar. Somali pirates demanded a $5 million ransom for
the release of two Egyptian fishing boats hijacked earlier this month.
Later in the day Yemeni coast guard forces freed the hijacked Yemeni
oil tanker (Qana) and arrested 11 Somali pirates, the first time the
country has successfully retaken a seized vessel.
(AP, 4/26/09)(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 Apr 28, The Seychelles Coast
Guard said it had arrested nine suspected pirates believed to be behind
the weekend attempt to hijack the melody, a luxury cruise liner
carrying an estimated 1,000 tourists in the Indian Ocean. The Spanish
navy had tracked the skiff and apprehended the suspects. They were then
turned over to the Seychelles Coast Guard.
(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 Apr 28, The Russian destroyer
Admiral Panteleyev seized a vessel with 29 suspected pirates off the
coast of Somalia. A Russian tanker fended off an attack by the same
group earlier in the day. On May 4 the Russian warship freed 8 Iranians
who were seized along with the suspected Somali pirates.
(AP, 4/29/09)(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 1, Special forces on a
Portuguese warship seized explosives from suspected Somali pirates
after thwarting an attack on an oil tanker, but later freed the 19 men.
Hours later and hundreds of miles away, another band of pirates
hijacked a cargo ship. The captain and 23 crew were all Ukrainians and
the Greek-owned, Maltese-flagged Ariana was carrying a cargo of soya
from Brazil to Iran when pirates attacked it southwest of the
Seychelles islands. The Ariana was freed on Dec 10 following a ransom
payment of $2.8 million by Athens-based Alloceans Shipping.
(AP, 5/2/09)(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 May 3, A French naval vessel
intercepted 11 suspected pirates traveling off the Somali coast in two
assault vessels and a so-called "mothership" loaded with Kalashnikovs
and rocket launchers.
(AP, 5/3/09)
2009 May 4, South Korean snipers
hovering in a helicopter chased away pirates pursuing a North Korean
freighter, while the Russian destroyer Admiral Panteleyev freed eight
Iranian citizens held hostage for more than three months.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 5, Somali pirates
hijacked the MV Victoria, a German cargo ship carrying 11 crew members
in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates released the ship and its 11 Romanian crew
members on July 18 following a ransom of $1.8 million.
(AP, 5/6/09)(AP, 7/18/09)
2009 May 7, Somali pirates
captured the Netherlands Antilles-flagged MV Marathon in the Gulf of
Aden. The ship listed 19 Ukrainian crew members. One of the crew
members died from a gun shot wound. On June 23 the Dutch Defense
Ministry reported that the ship was released.
(AP, 5/7/09)(AP, 6/23/09)
2009 May 10, In Somalia mortars
slammed into Mogadishu hitting a mosque and several homes. Weekend
fighting killed at least 35 people as pro-government Islamist fighters
clashed with gunmen who want to topple the Western-backed government.
(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 May 12, In Somalia a human
rights activist said 113 civilians have been killed in fierce fighting
in Mogadishu in the past three days. Some 10,000 civilians fled their
homes, raising the number displaced by the fighting to more than 27,000.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 13, South Korean
Destroyer ROKS Munmu the Great and the US guided missile cruiser
Gettysburg dispatched helicopters to aid Egypt’s Motor Vessel Amira
after it came under attack. 17 suspected pirates wee apprehended
following the attack in the Gulf of Aden.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 17, In Somalia Islamic
insurgents sustained their offensive on the nation's fragile government
and captured a strategic southeastern town, hours after a key Islamic
militia leader defected to the government. Several local and foreign
jihadists were killed in Mogadishu when a bomb-making workshop blew up.
(AP, 5/17/09)(Econ, 5/23/09, p.49)
2009 May 18, Somalia's war-torn
government appealed for international help to set up a coast guard,
saying it would guarantee that sea piracy near its shores is wiped out
once it has such an agency. In Malaysia representatives of the
government, attending an international conference on piracy, ruled out
allowing foreign forces on Somali soil to destroy pirate bases.
(AP, 5/18/09)
2009 May 18, Hard-line Somali
Islamist fighters captured Mahaday, 70 miles (113 km) north of
Mogadishu, after a pro-government militia abandoned it.
(AP, 5/18/09)
2009 May 19, In Somalia witnesses
said that Ethiopian troops have crossed the border and appear to be
stationing themselves at a strategic crossroads. Ethiopia denied the
reports. Witnesses said they saw Ethiopian troops in the Somali town of
Kalabeyr, 14 miles (22 km) from the Ethiopian border and 11 miles (18
km) north of Belet Weyne, the provincial capital of the Hiran region.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 20, In Somalia an attack
by Islamic insurgents on Somali troops near an African Union
peacekeeping base in Mogadishu killed at least three civilians,
including one child, as regional leaders met to discuss ways of aiding
the beleaguered government.
(AP, 5/20/09)
2009 May 22, Hundreds of Somali
government troops attacked insurgent-held positions north and south of
Mogadishu and the heart of the city was heavily shelled. One witness
said a busload of fleeing civilians was hit. Fighting between Somali
government troops and Islamic insurgents killed 53 people in Mogadishu.
Residents reported that the operation had failed to dislodge the
insurgents.
(AP, 5/22/09)(AP, 5/23/09)
2009 May 22, The African Union
called on the UN Security Council to take "immediate measures" to
impose sanctions on Eritrea over its support for Islamist insurgents in
Somalia.
(AFP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 22, An Italian warship
arrested nine pirates after helping a US-flagged container vessel and
another ship evade brigands off the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 24, In Somalia a foreign
suicide bomber killed six guards and a civilian at a military base in
Mogadishu, an attack that came after two weeks of intense fighting.
(AP, 5/24/09)
2009 May 26, Somali insurgents
fired mortars at the presidential palace in Mogadishu, killing seven
civilians and two government soldiers. The UN Security Council voted
unanimously to condemn the recent surge in fighting in Somalia and
called for an end to actions that undermine the country's
Western-backed government.
(AP, 5/27/09)
2009 May 26, A Swedish Navy ship
detained seven suspected pirates after stopping them from capturing a
cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden.
(AP, 5/26/09)
2009 May 28, The Indian navy
thwarted a pirate attack on a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden off the
coast of Somalia.
(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 29, The nonbinding New
York Declaration, an agreement between the signatory flag states which
condemns acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels and
seafarers, was originally tabled by The Bahamas, the Republic of
Liberia, the Republic of Marshall Islands and the Republic of Panama,
four nations that account for more than half of global shipping.
(www.unmultimedia.org/tv/unifeed/d/13476.html)
2009 Jun 1, In Somalia a roadside
bomb in Mogadishu killed at least 4 police officers in several
civilians.
(SFC, 6/2/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 4, Ethiopia charged 46
people, most of them ex-military, of plotting to assassinate government
officials. Ethiopia also said it has undertaken military reconnaissance
operations in Somalia, but is not planning to re-deploy.
(AFP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 6, Somali pirates
released the Yenegoa Ocean, a Nigerian tugboat they hijacked 10 months
ago on Aug 4, 2008. A Dutch navy ship escorted it to a safe harbor.
(AP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 7, In Somalia two masked
gunmen killed the director of one of the country’s largest
broadcasters, raising to five the number of journalists killed there
this year.
(AP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 10, The US Navy handed
over 17 suspected Somali pirates to Kenya, taking the total number held
in the east African nation to 101.
(AFP, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 17, Somali government
forces attacked rebel strongholds in Mogadishu, triggering battles that
killed at least 17 people, including Col. Ali Said , the capital's
police chief.
(AP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 18, In western Somalia a
suicide bombing killed at least 25 people including National Security
Minister Omar Hashi Aden at the Medina Hotel in Belet Weyne. Al-Shabab,
an extremist group with alleged links to the al-Qaida terror
network, claimed responsibility.
(AP, 6/18/09)(AP, 7/26/09)
2009 Jun 20, Somali lawmakers
pleaded for international military intervention within 24 hours to help
fight Islamic insurgents, where fierce fighting has resumed in
Mogadishu. The government called for troops from Kenya and Ethiopia to
come to its aid.
(AP, 6/20/09)(Econ, 6/27/09, p.56)
2009 Jun 22, An Islamic court in
Somalia sentenced four men to have a hand and a leg cut off for
stealing mobile phones and guns. The court postponed the punishment the
next day saying the hot weather could cause them to bleed to death.
(AP, 6/23/09)(SFC, 6/23/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 22, Pirates off Somalia
were chased down and captured by NATO’s Portuguese warship, the
Corte-real, after an attempted hijacking of a Singaporean freighter.
(SFC, 6/23/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 25, In Somalia in a
brazen show of power in Mogadishu, Islamist rebels punished four
convicted thieves (ages 18-25) by cutting off a hand and a foot each
before hundreds of onlookers who gathered for the bloody spectacle.
(AP, 6/25/09)
2009 Jun 25, US officials
acknowledged that the US organized an arms shipment to the Somali
government earlier this month.
(SFC, 6/26/09, p.A3)
2009 Jun 26, The UN refugee agency
said that the bloody conflict in Somalia has created the world's
largest refugee camp, with 500 hungry and exhausted refugees pouring
into a wind-swept camp in neighboring Kenya every day.
(AP, 6/26/09)
2009 Jun 28, Somali pirates
released the entire crew of the Belgian the Pompei dredger, a ship
seized on April 18, after a ransom was paid.
(AP, 6/28/09)
2009 Jul 5, In Somalia heavy
shelling between rebels and government forces near the presidential
palace killed at least 12 people. PM Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke
looked for help from more African Union peacekeepers.
(AP, 7/5/09)
2009 Jul 6, Ethnic Somali rebels
(ONLF) in Ethiopia's Ogaden region claimed they killed 90 government
troops in recent clashes, but the government denied any losses,
claiming victory instead.
(AFP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 8, Somali pirates seized
a Turkish ship with 23 crew and were being shadowed by a Turkish
warship in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates first surrounded the Horizon-1
in speed boats and then boarded the ship, which was carrying sulfate
from Saudi Arabia to Jordan.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 10, Somali residents said
Islamist insurgent fighters in Baidoa have beheaded seven people
accused of abandoning their religion and of espionage, in the largest
mass execution since the Islamists were chased from power two and a
half years ago.
(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 11, In Somalia a foreign
fighter and Nor Daqli, head of security for the capital, were among 16
people killed in fighting between UN-backed government forces and
Islamist insurgents in the north of Mogadishu.
(AP, 7/11/09)
2009 Jul 11, In Somalia a foreign
fighter and Nor Daqli, head of security for the capital, were among 16
people killed in fighting between UN-backed government forces and
Islamist insurgents in the north of Mogadishu.
(AP, 7/11/09)
2009 Jul 12, Somali government
forces with the help of African Union tanks fought Islamic militants in
the capital, with clashes killing at least seven people. Witnesses said
dozens of people were killed and some 150 wounded.
(AFP, 7/12/09)(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 14, In Somalia two French
officials working as security advisers to the Somali government were
kidnapped in Mogadishu. Agent Marc Aubriere managed to escape on August
26.
(Reuters, 7/14/09)(AP, 8/26/09)(SFC, 8/27/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 20, In Somalia Islamic
insurgents with alleged links with al-Qaida looted two United Nations
compounds in southern Somalia, and announced they will ban three UN
agencies from operating in areas the militants control.
(AP, 7/20/09)
2009 Jul 22, Somali Islamist
insurgents clashed with government forces and African Union
peacekeepers, killing 3 government, 3 insurgent fighters. The renewed
fighting between the radical Shebab militia and AU-backed government
forces killed at least 15 civilians in Mogadishu.
(AP, 7/23/09)(AFP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, Burundi army
officials said 3 of its soldiers serving with African Union
peacekeepers in Somalia have died of a mysterious illness in a Kenyan
hospital where more than 10 others are being treated.
(AFP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 24, Turkish commandos
captured five pirates in the Gulf of Aden as part of an international
mission to curb piracy off the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 26, Somali government
troops took full control of Belet Weyne, the strategic western town
where the national security minister was killed last month.
(AFP, 7/26/09)
2009 Jul 27, In Somalia mortar
attacks by rebels disrupted a parliamentary session as heavy fighting
between the militia and African Union-backed government forces killed 7
civilians.
(AP, 7/27/09)
2009 Jul 28, The UN refugee agency
said thousands of Somalis are preparing to cross the Gulf of Aden to
Yemen after fleeing fighting around the capital of Mogadishu.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Aug 1, Burundi said it has
deployed a third battalion of 850 soldiers to Mogadishu to reinforce
the African Union peacekeeping mission there. With the new troops, more
than 5,000 soldiers from Burundi and Uganda are now taking part in the
AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which began in March 2007 and has cost
the lives of 17 Burundian soldiers.
(AFP, 8/2/09)
2009 Aug 6, US Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking in Kenya, pledged to "expand and
extend" American support for Somalia's weak interim government as it
struggles against Islamist extremists believed linked to al-Qaida.
(AP, 8/6/09)
2009 Aug 8, In Somalia’s pirate
stronghold of Harardhere, fighting over the last 24 hours killed at
least 12 people. A dispute over a car escalated as clan militias got
involved. Mortar shells slammed into a busy market in the capital,
Mogadishu, killing six people and wounding 18.
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 11, In Somalia 4 European
aid workers and two Kenyan pilots were released after being held
hostage for nine months.
(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 12, In Somalia masked
gunmen killed five Pakistani preachers outside the Tawfiq Mosque in
Galkayo following morning prayers.
(AP, 8/12/09)
2009 Aug 13, The crew of two
Egyptian fishing vessels overpowered Somali pirates after being held
hostage for four months and, with machetes and tools, killed at least
two pirates before sailing to freedom. The fight took place near the
coastal town of Las Qorey off the Gulf of Aden. The pirates had
demanded a ransom of $1.5 million.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 15, Somali pirates found
seven dead colleagues floating in the ocean and vowed to take revenge
against Egyptian fishermen they say killed them during an August 13
escape.
(Reuters, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 17, In Somalia gunmen
stormed a UN aid compound in Wajid overnight, sparking a gunbattle that
killed three of the attackers and wounded one. Hundreds of
pro-government militiamen rolled into Bula Hawa town near the Kenyan
border after al-Shabab fighters abandoned it.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 20, In central Somalia
fighting between government soldiers and Islamic insurgents killed at
least 40 people as the warring sides tried to gain ground in strategic
towns.
(AP, 8/20/09)(SFC, 8/21/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 21, In Somalia an
insurgent attack on a peacekeeping base sparked gunbattles that killed
at least 22 people, as the undermanned African peacekeeping force tried
to maintain the government's tenuous hold on Somalia's battered capital.
(Reuters, 8/21/09)
2009 Aug 22, In Somalia Islamic
insurgents attacked a government checkpoint in Mogadishu, sparking a
gunbattle that killed at least five people on the first day of the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
(AP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 25, The UN said Somalia
is facing its worst humanitarian crisis in 18 years, with more than
half of the population needing humanitarian aid amid an escalating
crisis.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Aug 26, Somali pirates in the
Gulf of Aden fired at a US Navy helicopter as it made a surveillance
flight over the Win Far, a Taiwanese-flagged fishing vessel seized in
April, the first such attack by pirates on an American military
aircraft.
(AP, 8/27/09)
2009 Aug 29, Somali witnesses said
hundreds of Ethiopian troops have crossed the border and seized control
of the Somali town of Belet Weyne from Islamist insurgents.
(AP, 8/29/09)
2009 Sep 5, In Somalia at least
six civilians were killed and 18 others wounded in clashes that erupted
when insurgents attacked government and African Union forces in
Mogadishu.
(AFP, 9/6/09)
2009 Sep 6, Somali authorities,
who say they were not informed of a hostage exchange plan, stopped a
deal to swap three hostages held by Somali pirates with 23 suspected
pirates, who had been held in the Seychelles.
(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 8, Somalia graduated its
first 500 naval recruits hoping they would form the backbone of the
country’s first naval force in nearly two decades. 8 civilians were
killed and 31 wounded overnight during clashes pitting insurgents
against government and African Union forces in Mogadishu.
(SFC, 9/9/09, p.A2)(AFP, 9/8/09)
2009 Sep 9, A Somali Islamic court
cut off the hands of two men accused of theft and lashed another
accused of rape.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 9, The US, Britain,
Cyprus, Japan and Singapore signed on to an international plan, the
“New York Declaration,” to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia. The
New York Declaration is an agreement between the signatory flag states
which condemns acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels and
seafarers and recognizes that self protection measures taken by vessels
can be highly effective in avoiding, delaying and deterring acts of
piracy. The nonbinding political document was originally tabled on May
29, 2009.
(SFC, 9/10/09,
p.A2)(www.unmultimedia.org/tv/unifeed/d/13476.html)
2009 Sep 11, In Somalia mortars
slammed into Mogadishu, killing three civilians and at least 12 men at
a home for disabled veterans. Nearly a dozen other former soldiers were
wounded in the attack.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 14, In southern Somalia
foreign troops firing from 6 helicopters killed two people in a car and
then took two others captive in an insurgent-held village near Barawe.
Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan (30), a Kenyan citizen and one of Africa's most
wanted al-Qaida suspects, was one of the dead. He was wanted for
questioning in connection with the car bombing of a beach resort in
Kenya and the near simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli
airliner in 2002. Forces from the US Joint Special Operations Command
were involved in the raid.
(AP, 9/14/09)(AP, 9/15/09)
2009 Sep 17, In Somalia Islamist
insurgents drove two stolen UN cars loaded with explosives onto the
main base of African Union peacekeepers and triggered massive blasts
that a witness said killed 21 people, including 4 suicide bombers, 16
officials from the government and AMISOM, the AU peacekeeping force,
and the Burundian deputy commander of the force. Islamist insurgents
said the attack was in revenge for a US commando raid that killed an
al-Qaida operative. An hour later missiles were fired from the AU base
strike rebel-controlled areas of Mogadishu, killing seven people and
wounded 16. It was later suspected that one of the suicide bombers was
a Somali-American teenager, Omar Mohamud (18), of Seattle, Wa.
(AP, 9/17/09)(AP, 9/18/09)(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Sep 20, Somali al-Shabab
insurgents attacked a town near the border with Ethiopia, killing at
least 10 people.
(AP, 9/21/09)
2009 Sep 22, In Somalia Islamic
insurgents attacked an African Union peacekeeping base, sparking a
battle that killed at least 8 people and wounded more than a dozen.
(AP, 9/22/09)
2009 Sep 24, Swiss lawmakers
decided not to join the European Union's anti-piracy efforts, amid
concern that participating in the mission off Somalia could violate the
Alpine nation's long-standing neutrality.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2009 Sep 26, Turkey's navy
commandos aboard a frigate captured seven pirates in the Gulf of Aden
off Somalia's coast.
(AP, 9/26/09)
2009 Sep 28, In Somalia the
al-Shabab extremist Islamic group executed two Somali men in Mogadishu,
accusing them of being spies for foreign organizations. Mortars and
missiles pounded parts of Mogadishu, killing at least 13 civilians in
two separate battles between Islamic militiamen and the African Union
peacekeeping force.
(AP, 9/28/09)
2009 Oct 1, In Somalia fighting
between rival Islamist factions over control of Kismayo, a key port
city, killed at least 12 people, in the first concrete sign of a major
split in the Islamist alliance threatening the fragile UN-backed
government.
(AP, 10/1/09)
2009 Oct 2, Somali pirates
hijacked the Alakrana, a Spanish tuna trawler, with a 36-member crew in
the Indian Ocean 415 miles (670km) from the Seychelles islands. Two
days after the hijacking, Spanish naval forces taking part in the EU
anti-piracy mission captured two suspected pirates as they tried to
travel ashore to Somalia from the Alakrana in a skiff.
(AP, 10/2/09)(AP, 11/5/09)
2009 Oct 3, In Minnesota Somali
Pres. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed visited Minneapolis and St. Paul and
urged expatriates to help find solutions to the violence in their
homeland. The area is home to the largest Somali population in the US.
(SSFC, 10/4/09, p.A10)
2009 Oct 7, Somali pirates in two
skiffs fired on a French navy vessel after apparently mistaking it for
a commercial boat. The French ship gave chase and captured five
suspected pirates.
(AP, 10/7/09)
2009 Oct 9, In Somalia an Islamist
spokesman says gunmen have killed Ahmed Abdurahamn Odawa, aka
"Taliban," a senior member of Somalia's insurgency in Mogadishu.
Odawa's bodyguard and a nearby civilian were also killed. Three people
were killed and six injured in a separate incident in the central
Somali village of Bacda. 6 masked men used machetes to carry out
amputations on three young men accused of robbery by a Somali Islamist
court in Kismayo.
(AP, 10/9/09)(AP, 10/10/09)
2009 Oct 10, The French military
fired on pirates in the Indian Ocean to protect two tuna fishing
vessels.
(Reuters, 10/10/09)
2009 Oct 13, French soldiers in
the Indian Ocean opened fire on pirates, warding off an attack on two
French tuna fishing vessels off the Seychelles Islands.
(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 15, Somali pirates seized
the Kota Wajar, a Singapore-flagged container ship, in the Indian Ocean
about 300 miles (480km) north of the Seychelles islands.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 19, Somali pirates seized
a Chinese cargo ship with 25 people onboard.
(AP, 10/19/09)
2009 Oct 21, In Somalia a powerful
Islamist group linked to al-Qaida ordered two radio stations in
southwestern Somalia to stop broadcasts indefinitely.
(AP, 10/21/09)
2009 Oct 22, In Somalia mortar
bombs killed at least 30 people in Mogadishu after rebels launched
shells at the president's plane and African Union (AU) peacekeepers
responded with heavy artillery fire.
(Reuters, 10/22/09)
2009 Oct 22, Somali pirates with
automatic weapons seized the India-managed, Panamanian-flagged MV Al
Khaliq cargo ship off Africa's east coast and held its 26 crew members
hostage. Pirates also unsuccessfully attempted to hijack the
Italian-flagged MV Jolly Rosso off the Kenyan coast.
(AP, 10/22/09)
2009 Oct 23, Somali Islamist
rebels threatened to attack the capitals of Burundi and Uganda, the two
central African countries that have deployed peacekeeping troops to
prop up Somali's transitional government.
(AFP, 10/23/09)
2009 Oct 23, British couple Paul
and Rachel Chandler were heading from the Seychelles to Tanzania in
their yacht, the Lynn Rival, when the distress signal was sent. Reports
followed that the couple were seized by pirates. The couple were taken
to the Somali pirate lair of Harardhere and $7 million was later
demanded for their release.
(AP, 10/27/09)(AFP, 10/29/09)(AP, 10/31/09)
2009 Oct 25, In Somalia Islamist
militants in the port town of Merca shot to death two men accused by
fighters of spying for the weak government.
(AP, 10/25/09)
2009 Oct 28, Somalia’s PM Omar
Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke said that many countries are fishing illegally
in Somali waters and have pushed formerly profitable Somali fishermen
into the pirate trade. "We estimate that the value of the fish being
taken from our waters is perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars." 5
people were killed in fighting after insurgents sent mortars toward the
airport as the president was arriving.
(AP, 10/28/09)(AP, 10/31/09)
2009 Oct 28, Somali pirates
exchanged fire with a French fishing vessel. They sped away, but were
soon stopped by a Spanish naval helicopter. 7 pirates were detained on
the German naval vessel, FGS Karlsruhe.
(AP, 10/28/09)
2009 Oct 29, Somali pirates
continued their rampage around the Seychelles and seized a
Thailand-flagged trawler, believed to be Russian-owned with a crew of
25. Somali pirates currently held a total of nine ships and around 200
crew.
(AP, 10/29/09)
2009 Oct 31, Ahmed Gadaf, a
self-described spokesman for Somali pirates, said that boats from other
countries are plundering Somalia's fish-rich waters.
(AP, 10/31/09)
2009 Nov 1, Somali pirates
hijacked a Panamanian-flagged cargo ship with 18 crew off the east
coast of Africa, the latest in an increasing number of attacks. The
hijacking of the al-Mizan was not reported until Nov 10 when the
bandits demanded a $3 million ransom. The ship was reported released on
Nov 23. The pirates asked for and received $15,000 for "expenses." A
self-proclaimed pirate named Abdi Nor said that pirates did not demand
a ransom since the ship was bound for Mogadishu and carried goods owned
by Somalis.
(AP, 11/10/09)(AP, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 1, Somaliland defense
minister Saleban Warsame Guled said a roadside bomb in the country's
semiautonomous northern region has killed two people, including Osman
Yusuf, an infantry division commander.
(AP, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 5, Somali pirates
captured a Greek-owned bulk carrier with 21 crew on board. The carrier,
which is flagged in the Marshall Islands, had been heading to Zanzibar
but was last seen 300 miles east of Mombasa, Kenya. The ship and crew
were released on Dec 17.
(AP, 11/5/09)(AP, 12/18/09)
2009 Nov 9, The EU Naval Force
said pirates in two skiffs fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled
grenades at the Hong Kong-flagged BW Lion about 1,000 miles (1,600 km)
east of the Somali coast. The ship avoided the attack and no casualties
were reported. Some 14 Somali pirates seized a Yemeni fishing boat, the
Al Hilal or Al Halil.
(AP, 11/9/09)(AP, 11/11/09)
2009 Nov 10, Somali pirates seized
a Greek cargo ship, the 150 m (492 ft) Marshall Islands-flagged MV
Filitsa, after a 5-hour chase across the Indian Ocean. 3 Greek officers
and 19 Filipino sailors were aboard the ship, which was carrying bulk
urea from Kuwait to South Africa.
(AP, 11/11/09)
2009 Nov 11, In Somalia gunmen in
Bossaso killed High Court Judge Mohamed Abdi Aware, a top judge who had
sentenced many pirates and human traffickers to long jail terms. 3 men
were arrested the next day over the killing. Puntland legislator
Ibrahim Ilmi Warsame was also shot dead as he sat in a restaurant with
friends.
(AP, 11/12/09)
2009 Nov 13, The French government
said its navy has seized 3 boats of Somalia’s coast and detained 12
suspected pirates, while seizing an arsenal including assault rifles
and rocket launchers.
(SFC, 11/14/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 16, It was reported that
thousands of people, including children, are being secretly recruited
and trained inside Kenya to battle Islamic insurgents in neighboring
Somalia. Recruiters, about 2 months ago, started openly operating in
Kenyan towns and in nearby huts and tents of the refugee camps.
(AP, 11/16/09)
2009 Nov 17, Somali pirates freed
36 crew members from the Spanish trawler Alakrana after holding them
since Oct 2. A self-proclaimed pirate said the hostage-takers were paid
$3.3 million in ransom, while Spain's PM Zapatero said the country did
what it had to do.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 18, Somali pirates
attacked the Maersk Alabama for the second time in seven months, though
private guards on board the US-flagged ship repelled the attack with
gunfire and a high-decibel noise device.
(AP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 20, Somali pirates
hijacked a Panamanian cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden between the
Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 29, Somali pirates seized
the Greece-flagged Maran Centaurus, a tanker carrying more about $150
million of crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the US, in the waters off
East Africa.
(AP, 11/30/09)(AP, 12/4/09)
2009 Nov 29, Pirates attacked a
Spanish fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean, firing small arms and a
rocket-propelled grenade, but private security guards aboard the ship
shot back and repelled them.
(AP, 11/29/09)
2009 Dec 1, Pirates off Oman
attacked the oil tanker, Sikinos. Using flares and hoses, the crew of
the Greek oil tanker fought off the pirate attack in the Arabian Sea.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 2, Somali pirates on
speedboats tried to board the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged BBC Togo, but
were repelled after firing on the vessel. 13 pirates then fled to a
larger fishing boat 150 nautical miles (280km) south of Salalah where a
Dutch frigate captured them.
(AP, 12/3/09)
2009 Dec 3, In Somalia a male
suicide bomber dressed as a woman attacked a university graduation
ceremony in a small part of Mogadishu still under government control,
killing 24 people, including 3 Cabinet ministers, 3 journalists and a
number of graduating doctors. The president of Benadir University said
43 students were taking part in the graduation ceremony at the Shamo
Hotel. The bomber was later reported to be a Danish citizen of Somali
descent.
(AP, 12/3/09)(AP, 12/4/09)(AP, 12/10/09)(Econ,
12/12/09, p.54)
2009 Dec 7, In Somalia hundreds of
students marched in Mogadishu's streets in the first known protest
against Islamic militants, as Somalia's government warned that
militants are planning suicide attacks against key installations in
Mogadishu.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 8, Somali pirates
hijacked the MV Shahbaig, a Pakistan-flagged fishing vessel with 28
crew members aboard.
(AP, 12/9/09)
2009 Dec 14, In Somalia a
community leader said an explosion of an old land mine has killed six
children from the same family near the border with Ethiopia.
(AP, 12/14/09)
2009 Dec 17, Oxfam said some areas
of East Africa had received less than 5% of the normal November rains
and that many people are malnourished in Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia,
Kenya and Ethiopia. It was the sixth failed rainy season for
war-ravaged Somalia and the worst drought there for 20 years. The
European Commission announced that it would immediately release an
extra $75 million to fund emergency relief for drought-stricken areas
of East Africa. It estimated that 16 million people will need aid in
the coming months.
(AP, 12/17/09)
2009 Dec 18, The UN High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said an estimated 74,000 Africans,
mainly from Ethiopia and Somalia, have fled to Yemen as refugees or
economic migrants. That's a 50 percent higher than in 2008.
(AP, 12/18/09)
2009 Dec 20, In Somalia Islamic
militants fired mortars into Mogadishu's police compound as the force
was celebrating its 66th anniversary, sparking a battle that killed at
least 12 civilians and a police officer.
(AP, 12/20/09)
2009 Dec 21, In Somalia a bomb
blast and a separate mortar attack on a radio station in Mogadishu
killed eight people.
(AP, 12/21/09)
2009 Dec 24, Witnesses in Somalia
said fighting spurred by a land dispute in Galkayo has killed eight
people.
(AP, 12/24/09)
2009 Peter T. Leeson authored “The
Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates.”
(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.F1)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Somalia
End of file.