Most of the recent news about Somalia has centered on the pirate activity right off its coast. The high seas piracy conducted out of the ports of Somalia has grabbed the western media’s attention ever since the Maersk Alabama hijacking last April. One might wonder how such lawlessness can be allowed to happen right under the noses of the Somali government.
It is often forgotten that Somalia essentially has no federal leadership. Aside from petty warlords and religious fanatics there is no overarching legal or legislative system in the shattered country. Since the overthrow of dictator Said Barre, who acted as President of the Somali Democratic Republic from 1969 to 1991, there has been no effective executive branch in the country. Over a dozen attempts to create a viable federal government for the land have failed, and the newest coalition, led by former Islamic Courts Union (ICU) rebel Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, is showing all the signs that it will fail. So who runs the country?
Right now it looks to be the Harakat al-Shabaab Mujahideen (often shortened to al-Shabaab), an ultra-conservative Sunni group and vocal supporter/ally of al-Qaeda. The name means ‘movement of warrior youth’. It is a fitting moniker, as many of the foot soldiers of this group are illiterate teenagers. It split off from the ICU rebel movement when it was torn from power by the Ethiopian army in 2006. In 2008 the fledgling group gained its first major victory at the Battle of Kismayo. In 2009 the second Battle of Mogadishu occurred, led by al-Shabaab and fellow Muslim extremist group Hizbul Islam. While they ultimately failed to topple the frail Somali government there, al-Shabaab did gain control over most of the capital city and continues to hold power there to this day.
As of spring in 2010 this radical militia group has taken over most of southern Somalia, including the administrative capital of the Somali Transitional Federal Government, Jowhar. Jowhar is a town of about 50 thousand people located 55 miles north of the Somali capital, and it is the focal point of the newest bizarre set of ultra-conservative sharia rules and regulations coming out of al-Shabaab. The strangest of these includes a total ban on the use of school bells. According to religious scholars of al-Shabaab, the ringing bells are too reminiscent of Christian church bells, and therefore they are illegal.
