Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.
Deuteronomy4:35
Somali
The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the Siad Barre regime during the 1980s. By 1988–90, the Somali Armed Forces began engaging various armed rebel groups, including the Somali Salvation Democratic Front in the northeast, the Somali National Movement in the northwest, and the United Somali Congress in the south. The clan-based armed opposition groups eventually managed to overthrow the Barre government in 1991.
Various armed factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum that followed, which precipitated the arrival of the UNITAF and UNOSOM peacekeeping forces in December 1992. Factional fighting and turmoil followed, especially in southcentral Somalia. Slowly, warlord influence was lessened as secular and customary practices gained purchase, including through the stabilizing influence of the business community. Later, Sharia law began to have influence. In 1991 and 1998, two autonomous regional governments were also established in the northern part of the country. This led to a relative decrease in the intensity of the fighting, with SIPRI removing Somalia from its list of major armed conflicts for the years 1997 and 1998.
In 2000, the Transitional National Government was established, followed by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in 2004. In 2006, the TFG, assisted by Ethiopian troops, seized most of the south from the newly formed Islamic Courts Union (ICU). The ICU subsequently splintered into more radical groups, notably Al-Shabaab, which have since been fighting the Somali government and the AU-mandated AMISOM intervention force for control of the country.
In October 2011, following a weekend meeting between Somali and Kenyan military officials, Kenyan forces entered Somalia in Operation Linda Nchi, against Al-Shabaab positions in southern Somalia. Later Kenyan forces joined AMISOM. In August 2014, the Somali government-led Operation Indian Ocean was launched to clean up the remaining insurgent-held pockets in the countryside.
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