Gunfire and grenade explosions were heard in the streets of Mogadishu on Friday as troops supporting the Somali government clashed with militias supporting opposition parties, sparking fears that the Somali military might splinter along clan lines, strengthening the hand of the Al-Qaeda affiliate, Al-Shabaab, in the region.
The outbreak of fighting is linked to opposition protests over elections being delayed. Opposition protesters claimed that government forces were being backed by Turkish special forces.
‘The military is dissolving and many troops seemingly reverting to clan loyalties,’ said Colonel Ahmed Abdullahi Sheikh, a former commander of Somalia’s elite US-trained Danab unit. ‘It’s a mess. There’s no longer any command structure whatsoever.’
Somalia has been struggling with internal conflict since the early 90s when the government collapsed. Since then, multiple clan-based groups have fought for control of the country, while the northern territory broke away to form the unrecognised countries of Somaliland and Puntland. The hardline Islamist group, Al-Shabaab, has established itself in the south-west of the country.
Interventions by the African Union, backed by the United States and the European Union, have helped to reestablish a coalition government in Mogadishu, but after the outbreak of renewed fighting this week there are fears it is in danger of collapsing.
[Image: CT Snow, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2437040, dating from the early 1990s]