According to Garowe Online, Somalia's Islamic courts have worked out an unusual merger arrangement with Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siad, known as "Inda'ade" regarding the Lower Shabelle Region.

Sources at the scene told Garowe Online that no battlewagons or militiamen loyal to warlord Indha Ade were transferred over to the ICC, which is the usual routine.

But Somalinet tells a different story:

Islamic forces are reportedly reached Marka where they will confiscate all weapons from militia loyal to the current ruler of Yusuf Inda-ade.

From Reuters:

"Whatever happens from today, good or bad, will fall on the shoulders of the Islamic courts," Inda'ade, now in charge of security for the Islamists, told the crowd under a tree.

How many people can fit under a tree? :) Quite a few, I guess, if they're skinny.

And here's a very interesting interview with Sheikh Aweys.

From Somalia Online:

Just this month the courts in Burco started executions. 3 have been executed already. It has no ties to the ICU.

Burco is in Somaliland.

From Garowe Online:

Mohammed Amin Osman is chairman of the Somali-UK Activist Group. Ousman says he has just returned from Kismayo. From London, he tells VOA English to Africa reporter James Butty that reports of thousands of refugees fleeing Kismayo is part of a propaganda against the Islamic Courts Union.

From adnki:

"We need to get away from these tribal problems. We want to form a government that is unhindered by bureacracy...we intend to create an Islamic state and will take Badoia," Aweys stated..."We will go back to rule by militias. Rule by tribal warlords is a mistaken policy. We are still in an initial phase of reorganisation," said Aweys.

Here's some evidence of internal division among the Mogadishu courts.

Somalia: Illegal charcoal export continues at El Maan port

What's interesting is that there's no mention in the article of any brewing conflict over the issue.

From Somali UK:

Salam folks,
Firstly, the ICU is composed of different entities (courts) and with different ideologies united under one " not clearly defined" banner called the Islamic courts. They were the people, the civilians who sufferered most at the hands of the warlords in Mogadishu and they started to revolt against these ruthless warlords and by the grace of Allah they succeeded. They done a lot of great job and gained respect amongst all somalis. However, there are some elements within the ICU who is taking advantage of the situation and trying to hijack the good intention of ICU over to their own one. They simply trying to divert the route and the policy and that itself would obviously hasten its decline.

The problem,
We know that each entity within ICU can independently work on its own and with their own idealogy under the banner of ICU. There is no guidelines each one has their own interpretation and rulings. And unfortunately so far each entity is not accountant for whatever mistake it done, ka soco waay!

Now, the last remaining warlord in south is Indha Cade and ICU don't have the balls to go there and invade as they did other places. So unlike other warlords before I dont understand what makes Indhocade immune from attack from the ICU (where he either let ICU take over Marka or him to leave the city) ironically he is their chief-of-staff instead, and his adminstration is NOT under the ICUs. I was listening radio yesterday when Radio Shabelle asked him the fature of Marka where he epesonded in rage and asked the man how dare he ask him such that question!.

So again I would conclude this: Wax alla wixii XAQ ku taagani ma burburaan!

Ramadan Kareem
xPo

To answer your question, Flavian, I was hoping to find an example of the courts being rebuffed by traditional elders and other influential non-warlords, because I remember something similar being mentioned at somaliaonline.com. I might have been thinking of South Galkayo (which, unlike North Galkayo, is supposedly outside the territory of Puntland, though it is obviously within its sphere of influence). If so, I was only partially right.

From PINR

As the I.C.C. began its advance on Galkayo and local leaders in the south of the town appeared ready to welcome the Courts, the Puntland administration placed its security forces on high alert on August 4 and moved them into the north of the town, vowing to resist any penetration of Puntland by the I.C.C.

On August 6, there were reports that Abdi Qeybdid, a warlord who had been expelled from Mogadishu in July, had lent the support of his militia to the Puntland forces. The I.C.C. responded that it would "not endure" Qeybdid's presence and blamed Puntland for creating a crisis. With 1,000 Courts fighters reported to be massing in the central region, the I.C.C. announced that it would enter the Galkayo area and establish a Shari'a court there.

On August 9, the first serious opposition to the I.C.C.'s advance surfaced in the form of a violent protest demonstration against the I.C.C. in south Galkayo. The protestors, numbering in the hundreds, destroyed posters welcoming the I.C.C. and called on the population to resist the Courts. The demonstration included leaders from Puntland and Ahlu Sunna wal Jama'a, a traditional Muslim group.

By August 10, the I.C.C. forces were in the Galkayo area, setting up roadblocks and vowing to take control of the town. Puntland's president, Adde Muse Hersi, insisted that his forces would "repel" the I.C.C.

On August 11, both sides were preparing for confrontation, as Puntland forces were reported to have infiltrated into south Galkayo and the I.C.C. dispatched a reconnaissance mission to the town. The local administration in south Galkayo, which had been preparing to receive the I.C.C., asked it to remain outside the town temporarily. The stand-off became more tense on August 13, as the I.C.C. deployed its forces closer to Puntland's border.

With armed confrontation looming and Ethiopia posing the greatest threat to the I.C.C., the Courts backed down and met with a delegation from Puntland led by Muse on August 16. Both sides agreed that they would stay in their present positions and would cooperate in joint security operations.

***

Here's something I found along the way: some old news from PINR:

"Clan elders and political leaders in Sool, which is divided between Puntland and Somaliland, indicated that they would create an administration independent of the Puntland authorities."

A New York Times writer says Somalia's Islamic Courts

• "are pushing for democratic elections"
• sent a letter this week to the United Nations Security Council "pledging to support democratic rule"
• are saying "the sooner the better" with regard to elections

He also mentions "beautifully crumbling ruins" and a "mini building boom," but unfortunately the pictures in the slide show only show the former.

***

In other news, the courts have taken Kismayo. The comments at the end of the article are very interesting.

The LA Times has a somewhat favorable article about the Courts' efforts to rehabilitate gunmen who had been previously loyal to the defeated warlords. As always, I want to know how their programs are financed.

To sweeten the deal, the Islamists promised to continue paying the men's salaries. After some delays, militiamen in the camps received about $100 each last month. Islamists said the money came from taxes at the recently reopened airport and sea port, though critics allege that funding is coming from Middle East countries and Eritrea.

I think that "taxes" levied at airports and seaports are more like fees, so I think it still qualifies as anarchy.

From Easybourse:

A representative from the Islamic group already has entered Kismayo, 420 kilometers southwest of Mogadishu, to negotiate the peaceful transfer of control of the town to the Islamic militia from an independent group called the Juba Valley Alliance. The two sides held a meeting Thursday but the issue remained unresolved.
One of the faction leaders now in control of Kismayo is the minister of defense in the weak, but internationally recognized Somali government.
So far there has been no fighting in Kismayo, but hundreds of Somalis have fled to refugee camps in neighboring Kenya, 200 kilometers to the south.

In other news:

From Reuters:

"The (Somali) people love us, they want us. We know the risks, but we will go back soon to continue our work," Sister Gianna Irene Peano told Reuters at the funeral (of the recently slain nun) in Nairobi.

From Alertnet:

"A survey asked 7,000 people around the whole country 'what is the No. 1 priority for you?'," he said. "It was quite clear that number one was education, two was health, three was water sanitation. Issues like law and order, peace and reconciliation, the kind of issues high on the global agenda, they were not mentioned."

This paragraph was under the odd subheading "SOMALIS WANT EDUCATION OVER PEACE." But I think its more likely that the situation is peaceful enough that Somalis aren't worried about losing peace and can therefore focus on things that are lower on the list of necessities.

There's a joke in the form of a question that goes like this: How important do you have to be for your murder to be called . . . an assassination?

I remembered the joke after the bombing the other day in Baidoa, Somalia, which some reports were calling an assassination attempt against the TFG President Abdullahi Yusuf. It was reportedly also Somalia's first suicide bombing ever.

It's debatable whether Yusuf is important enough for the phrase 'assassination attempt' to be used in this case. However, what I do find extremely difficult to believe is that anyone would consider Yusuf important enough, and his farcical TFG consequential enough, to justify killing him at all. Someone equally powerless would simply take his place. And particularly in Somalia, I don't think many adults could be found who believe that Yusuf will ever be more than a figurehead in his lifetime.

And yet, even more ludicrous, we're supposed to believe that somebody carried out a suicide bombing in order to kill him.

So this is another event that I'm very suspicious of. Who is behind it? Clearly, foreign governments would have the greatest interest in arranging the incident. Foreign governments have an interest in making Somalia appear to be less stable than it is, while making the TFG appear to be a force for "restoring order," and its leader important enough for some evildoer to assassinate. The Ethiopian government in particular is in the most immediate danger of collapsing as anarchy threatens to spread. But all the world's regimes see the writing on the wall and would have the same motivation to arrange this kind of violent act, if not the same degree of urgency.

Maybe there was a suicide bomber. But then, maybe the bomb was planted in an unsuspecting victim's vehicle. If it was a suicide bombing, it wouldn't surprise me if it turned out that a foreign government, using drugs, or hypnotism or other psychological methods, induced the bomber to do the deed.

Update: In a new twist to the story, it seems there was a gunbattle after the bombing. So...(holds out left hand, palm up) ..."suicide bombing"...(holds out right hand, palm up) ..."gunbattle"...(holds out left hand, palm up)..."suicide bombing"...(holds out right hand, palm up)..."gunbattle"...

I have a theory as to how the two are logically connected. Perhaps you have one, too.

Somalia: Table tennis cup 2006 concluded in Mogadishu

Life goes on for most Somalis despite heinous, headline-grabbing crimes and the associated negative publicity.

Speaking of which, Al-Jazeera quotes Sheikh Ahmed on Monday's bomb blasts in Baidoa.

“It seems that there were many conspiracies plotted against this country (Somalia)”, he said. He urged all officials to be on alert to confront such plots and bear their responsibilities. “I accuse foreign countries particularly Ethiopia of planning for such an act as it seeks to get its troops into Soamlia and to justify its position before the UN”, he told Aljazeera. He criticized the Somali foreign and interior ministers for the “unaccountable statements” they made about the incident.

There are no docks or cranes at a makeshift port in Mogadishu, just thousands of workers who wade out to the ships and carry goods in by hand.

http://www.mojohd.com/shows/drdanger/

I wonder if this makeshift port is still in operation now that the Islamic Courts have opened the main port and are urging businessmen to use it.

From Hobyonet:

Somalis are 100% Moslems. Their brand of Islam is Sufism. A Somali journalist Bashir Goth compares Wahabism and Sufism. “Sufism, however, which was the Somali way of Islam and which Wahhabism condemns as a heresy, reaches out to the heart and good sense of all mankind without distinction. Instead of shunning all other faiths and branding them as bogus religions, Sufism sees all faiths as equally valid, following directly God's words "wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of God.” Where Wahhabism sows hatred and rancor even among Moslems, Sufism preaches sulh-e kull (universal peace) and Mahabbat e-kull (universal love).”

...

The Somali people have romantic memories of the good America. The first widespread contact with Americans was in the 1960’s when the Peace Corps came to Somalia. The Americans were a new type of white men and women and blacks of course. Unlike the European colonial administrators the Peace Corps mingled with the local people, rode the public transportation, went to the cinemas, played basketball with local youth and made friends with the townspeople. The Somalis sipped Coca-Cola and danced with the American rhythms of James Brown, Michael Jackson and others. They loved the American movies of the Wild West. Somalis do not hate America or American way of life. On the contrary they love America and the Americans. Shakira is a big hit in Mogadishu now.

Actually, Shakira is from Colombia, but the main idea is unchanged.

Have you seen the ridiculous reports that the Islamic Courts are banning music throughout Somalia? (As if anyone had that kind of power.) The BBC sets the record straight.

But others point out that different Islamic Courts have different ideas about what is acceptable.

In some parts of Mogadishu, cinemas showing Bollywood films or international football have been closed down but these still operate in other areas of the city.

Our correspondent says the capital's radio stations are still broadcasting normally, playing all kinds of music, including western hip-hop and R 'n' B.

Why are Somalia's Islamic Courts so successful in winning hearts and minds?

1. Follow the money.

Somalia’s Islamic Courts recruits take training courses in deep southern Somalia

Asked who was paying the finances to support the training mission, Keynan said, “It is a coordinated cooperation made by local individuals and businesspeople. These young men will be given lessons mainly concerning soldier discipline, Islamic laws and patriotism”.

2. Look at their agenda. The following is from an interview with Sheik Sharif Ahmed. (Regular readers of this blog will find it interesting that he, not boogeyman Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, is described here as being the head of the Somalia Union of Islamic Courts.)

Sheikh Sharif, 42, believes that with time, those who view the courts with suspicion will realise that it has no ulterior motive. It only wants to bring sustainable peace and initiate dialogue among the Somali people. His choice of programmes are centred on restoring order and his agenda is purely domestic.

3. Look at their successes. Here is just one of many examples. After a businessman was murdered in Mogadishu...

The Islamic Courts forces quickly rushed to the scene of the incident and some reports say that Islamists captured the murderer after chasing him down. He is now in custody.

More militiamen defect from Puntland, Somalia govt

At least 50 of them have joined a group that calls itself the 3rd Brigade (Guutada Sedaxaad), which has been "coalescing militias" in the outskirts of the Puntland capital at Garowe.

This appears to be a positive development. Judging from the limited information in the article, and its name, the 3rd Brigade appears to be a group (1) with legitimate grievances, (2) that might serve as a bulwark against the abuses of the Puntland administration, and (3) without a religious agenda.

Baidoa warlord tells TFG to leave town

Here's a transcript of a CNN story on Somalia in which they interview a different Professor Samatar, who says the "amorphous chaos" is nothing to worry about.

Exports from Brazil to the Arabs broke new record in August

The markets (for Brazilian products) that grew most (compared with the first 8 months of last year) were Iraq (US$ 52 million, 215% growth), Djibouti (US$ 6.4 million, 187% more), Somalia (US$ 46 million, expansion of 92%), Sudan (US$ 41.7 million, 92% greater) and Egypt (49.5%).

Somalia could stage international football event next year

War-torn Somalia could host next year's Confederation of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) Under-20 Championship, Kenyan media reported Wednesday...CECAFA Secretary-General Nicholas Musonye said that...they have already done a survey of hotels and the stadium that will host the championship and everything was in order. "The hotels are superb and what will be required are light renovations at the Benadir Stadium where we will look for a sponsor for that."

Somalia's Transitional Federal Government is at war. Here's an article about the TFG seizing the local airport in Baidoa from local militias unaffiliated with the Islamic Courts Union.

The clash erupted after a group of police officers tried to leave the airport for training in Kenya, and the militia demanded they pay taxes.

According to the Reuters version, one of the local militiamen said:

"Policemen were firing at us and we were forced to return fire and that's when I was injured."

It seems very plausible that this was a surprise attack. The TFG is not powerful enough to achieve its goals through a threat of force (thus sparing lives), because this would give the local militias time to reinforce their positions and prevent the attack from happening.

Here's a quote that, if true, suggests that the TFG is very much at odds with the administration of the Bay region, of which Baidoa is the capital:

Many wounded militiamen said they had not been paid and were given the green light by local authorities to collect "taxes".

Somalinet's version meshes well with this claim and takes it a step further, describing how the incident has angered the local administration. (The first "they" in the second paragraph refers to the TFG policemen.)

Shortly after the incident, deputy chairman of the Bay region Shino Moalim condemned today the attack by the government police as an illegal and politically motivated action.

“Actually general Ali Madobe and his policemen have today attacked the militiamen in the airport of Baidoa who have really been in collaboration with the administration of the region where they committed killing and occupied the area without informing us and I see that is an aggressive action against the people in the region,” Shino said. “The resident militia were ambushed by police attackers and they were not alert of any attack’”

Were they were collecting legitimate airport fees?

Mr. Shino...denied some reports that say that the militia in the airport used to take illegal money from the airplanes as well as the passengers coming in and out of the airport, saying they were local militia who had been located in the airport by the administration in Baidoa.

News24 of South Africa adds a twist:

Police said they had moved on the Baidoa airport to evict militia fighters who had set up a shop there, imposing taxes and recruiting cronies into their ranks after having been dismissed as airport security workers.

The same article quotes one Baidoa police official as saying that 12 people were killed, though a government spokesperson said that there were no deaths.

African News Dimension calls the vanquished group "Islamists" and "Islamic fighters," and their headline suggests that the "Islamists" fired the first shot.