Al Shabaab’s leadership has been reorganised after the collapse of the other main Islamist group Hizbul Islam (Party of Islam) whose Chairman Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys was coerced into a merger...
Vol 50 No 23 |
- ERITREA
- SOMALIA
These officers are said to be close to Hizbul Islam's leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir 'Aweys' who returned to Somalia this year after a long stay in Asmara...
Stirring up Somalia Eritrea has no direct security interest in Somalia but backs any Somali organisation that opposes Ethiopia: the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in 2006 the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia formed (in Asmara) in September 2007 and now Sheikh Hassan Dahir 'Aweys' and his Hizbul Islam coalition a significant opponent of Somalia's TFG (which the Eritrean government describes as a 'so-called illegal Transitional Government imposed on the Somali people')...
Hizbul Islam came together as a four-party group in January and on 26 May Sheikh Hassan Dahir 'Aweys' who heads the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia Asmara faction took over as leader of Hizbul Islam displacing Omar Imam Abubakar...
The return of Sheikh Hassan Dahir 'Aweys' to Mogadishu on 23 April may prove extremely dangerous for the shaky coalition government under Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed (AC Vol 50 No 4)...
In early February several insurgent groups rallied in Afmadow under a new umbrella the Hisbul Islam (Party of Islam) led by Omar Imam Abubaker (Badiadde/Hawiye) who was Deputy Chairman to Hassan Dahir 'Aweys' in the Islamic Courts' Shura (Parliament) in mid-2006...
Other Islamic organisations which did not use violence against the first TFG such as Al Islah are throwing their weight behind the new TFG President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed formerly head of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) and previously head of the ICU until it was taken over by hard-line followers of Sheikh Hassan Dahir 'Aweys' (AC Vol 49 No 25 and Vol 50 No 1)...