...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
forces and
al-Shabaab... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim
al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
fighters have left at least 24 people dead in southern part of Somalia.
At least 24 people were killed on Wednesday evening after festivities broke out between al-Shaboobs and the transitional government troops in Dhobley and Elwak towns near the border with Kenya, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Most of those killed were members of anti-government al-Shabaab group while scores of people were also injured during the deadly festivities.
Al-Shabaab fighters had controlled Dhobley town in Lower Jubba region since January 2009. However,
The contradictory
However...
it fell under pro-government militia Ahlu Sunna Waljama's control last week.
Boilerplate follows...
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Over the past two decades, up to one million people have been killed in Somalia in the fighting between rival factions and also due to famine and disease.
There are more than 1.4 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia, with over 300,000 of them sheltering in Mogadishu alone.
Most of the displaced live in poor and degrading conditions on makeshift camps in southern and central Somalia, according to the United Nations
...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
High Commissioner for Refugees.