Word: mogadishu
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They're dragging bodies through the streets of Mogadishu once again. This time the dead men--paraded before a camera phone in November--were not American soldiers but Ethiopian ones. Yet the episode was a reminder of how dangerous Somalia has become. Last December the forces of Ethiopia, a prime U.S. ally in Africa and a major recipient of U.S. military aid, invaded Somalia to depose a radical Islamist regime, and Ethiopia received significant U.S. logistical support as the operation unfolded. But today the East African nation--indeed, the whole Horn of Africa--is again in chaos. Ethiopia and Eritrea...
...long been active politically and militarily in East Africa, and its presence dramatically increased after Sept. 11, 2001. In the summer of 2006, the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), an alliance of clerics and clan leaders that included several al-Itihaad al-Islamiya leaders, took over Mogadishu and imposed a form of law and order on Somalia, which had just gone through 15 years of civil war. But a few months later, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of the UIC, which had absorbed al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, declared a jihad on Ethiopian troops, who were regularly crossing into Somalia...
...summer, Ethiopian and U.S. officials were claiming that the little war in Somalia was over. Though his troops remained in Mogadishu, Meles told TIME that the operation was a "tremendous success." But the violence never disappeared. On June 1, a U.S. warship unleashed an artillery barrage on Puntland in northern Somalia, reportedly killing eight jihadis. In a four-day battle in the capital in April, some 1,000 Ethiopians and Somali rebels died. Fierce fighting broke out in Mogadishu again last month, after which tens of thousands more refugees fled the capital...
...transitional government in Mogadishu has fractured, with clan loyalties trumping unity. In October, President Yusuf Abdullah fired Prime Minster Ali Mohammed Gedi. (On Nov. 24, in the latest attempt to forge a working government, Nur Hassan Hussain, the longtime president of Somalia's Red Crescent Society, was sworn in as Prime Minister.) Government forces stormed the U.N. World Food Program compound in October and briefly took its head of mission hostage. And the jihadis are regrouping. Ayro, now recovered, is back in Mogadishu at the head of the UIC militia. He recently issued a proclamation hailing bin Laden and calling...
...from clear how the U.S. might do that. Yet, however terrible war in the Horn of Africa may be, experience suggests that hunger kills more people there than guns do. According to the U.N., since Ethiopia invaded Somalia, 503,000 refugees have fled Mogadishu to live in hovels of twigs and plastic bags in the bush. A year ago, there were 370 refugee families at a refugee camp 30 miles (48 km) from Mogadishu. Six months later, the camp sheltered 20,000 people. Hawa Abdi, a Somali doctor after whom the camp is named, told TIME this summer, "We need...