War in Somalia (2006–2009)
Armed conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about War in Somalia (2006–2009)?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, also known as the Ethiopian occupation of Somalia [34] or the Ethiopian intervention in the Somali Civil War,[35] was an armed conflict that lasted from late 2006 to early 2009. It began when military forces from Ethiopia, supported by the United States, invaded Somalia to depose the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and install the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The conflict continued after the invasion when an anti-Ethiopian insurgency emerged and rapidly escalated. During 2007 and 2008, the insurgency recaptured the majority of territory lost by the ICU.
Ethiopian invasion of Somalia | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Ethiopian–Somali conflict and the Somali Civil War | |||||||
An Ethiopian T-55 tank advances on Mogadishu (December 2006) | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Invasion: Insurgency: | Invasion: | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
| |||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Ethiopia: Unknown, see Casualties
TFG:
AMISOM: Unknown, see Casualties | |||||||
Civilian casualties: (see § Casualties and human rights violations) |
Ethiopian military involvement began in response to the rising power of the Islamic Courts Union, which operated as the de facto government in the majority of southern Somalia by late 2006. In order to reinforce the weak Ethiopian backed TFG, troops from the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) began deploying into Somalia during June 2006. Six months later during December 2006 the combined ENDF/TFG coalition, alongside a covert US military contingent, launched a full-scale invasion to topple the Islamic Courts. The ICU's organizational structure disintegrated, ENDF/TFG forces entered Mogadishu in the last days of December. In early 2007 an insurgency began, centered on a loose coalition of Islamic Courts loyalists, volunteers, clan militias, and various Islamist factions, of which Al-Shabaab eventually assumed a pivotal role. In the same period, the African Union (AU) established the AMISOM peacekeeping operation, sending thousands of troops to Somalia to bolster the besieged TFG and ENDF. The Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), the successor to the ICU, further incited Islamist rebels and participated in the fighting.
Over the following two years, the ENDF, the TFG and AMISOM, became entrenched in a protracted struggle against an escalating insurgency, leading to the displacement of nearly one million inhabitants from Mogadishu.[36][37] Piracy of the coast of Somalia, which had been previously suppressed by the ICU, greatly proliferated.[4] While Mogadishu witnessed fierce fighting, insurgents launched offensives across southern and central Somalia in late 2007 and 2008, regaining territory previously lost by the ICU. During 2008, Al-Shabaab started taking control of significant tracts of southern Somalia and began governing territory for the first time.[38] The Ethiopian military occupation faltered,[39] and by Autumn 2008, more than 80% of the territory the ICU lost during the invasion was recaptured by the insurgency.[40] By November, the insurgency had effectively won.[41] By December 2008, the TFG only had control over parts of Mogadishu and the city of Baidoa.[42] That month TFG President Abdullahi Yusuf resigned after stating that he had lost control of Somalia to the insurgency.[43] The Ethiopian backed government remained weak and highly fragmented, as its fragility remained unchanged from its state prior to the invasion.[39]
At the end of 2008, the ARS was assimilated into the TFG in an attempt to halt the growing insurgency and form a representative democratic government.[44][34] During January 2009, former head of the Islamic Courts Union Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was elected president of Somalia. That same month, declaring victory and claiming to have eradicated the 'Islamist threat', ENDF forces withdrew from Mogadishu and Somalia, ending the two year occupation.[34] By the time of the withdrawal, effectively all territory lost by the ICU during the full scale December 2006 and January 2007 invasion had been recovered by Islamist insurgents,[45] including much of Mogadishu.[46][34] Years into the present phase of the civil war, Ethiopia became re-involved and joined AMISOM in 2014 in order to counter the growth of Al-Shabaab.