War in Somalia (2006–2009)

The Ethiopian occupation of Somalia, also called the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia^[33] or the Ethiopian intervention in the Somali Civil War,^[34] was an armed conflict that lasted from late 2006 to early 2009. It began when military forces from Ethiopia, supported by the United States, invaded Somalia to depose the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and install the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The conflict continued after the invasion when an anti-Ethiopian insurgency emerged and rapidly escalated. During 2007 and 2008, the insurgency recaptured the majority of territory lost by the ICU.

Quick Facts Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, Date ...

Ethiopian invasion of Somalia
Part of the Ethiopian–Somali conflict and the Somali Civil War
An Ethiopian T-55 tank advances on Mogadishu
Date 17 June 2006 – 30 January 2009 (2 years, 7 months, 1 week and 1 day) Location Southern and Central Somalia Result Islamist insurgent victory,[1][2] see Consequences Disintegration of the Islamic Courts Union Emergence of Islamist insurgency Rise of Al-Shabaab[3] Deployment of AMISOM forces (2007) Proliferation of Piracy off the coast of Somalia[4][5] Insurgency recaptures majority of south/central Somalia and Mogadishu Withdrawal of all ENDF from Mogadishu and most of Somalia (2009) New phase of Somali Civil War with the conflict between radical and moderate Islamists
Belligerents
Invasion:  Ethiopia TFG  United States[6] Supported by:  Kenya[7] Insurgency:  Ethiopia TFG  Puntland  Galmudug ASWJ[8]  United States[9] AMISOM  Burundi[10][11]  Kenya  Malawi[12]  Nigeria[13]  Uganda[14]	Invasion: Islamic Courts Union Supported by: ONLF[15][16] Eritrea[17] Insurgency: Al-Shabaab ARS ICU loyalists Ras Kamboni Brigades Jabhatul Islamiya Muaskar Anole
Commanders and leaders
Meles Zenawi Gabre Heard Kuma Demeksa Samora Yunis Abdullahi Yusuf Ali Gedi Barre Hiiraale Adde Musa George W. Bush Barack Obama Robert Gates	Sharif Ahmed Hassan Aweys Ibrahim Addow Abdirahman Janaqow Hassan al-Turki Aden Ayrow † Ahmed Godane Mukhtar Robow
Strength
Ethiopia: 50,000+[18][19] Somalia: 10,000 soldiers[20] AMISOM: 5,250 soldiers US Forces: Unknown	ICU: 4,000 (2006)[21] Al-Shabaab: 2,000 (2008)[22] 3,000 (2009)[23] Foreign fighters: Several hundred [24]
Casualties and losses
Ethiopia: Unknown, see Casualties Somalia (TFG): Unknown 15,000 deserted[25] AMISOM: Unknown, see Casualties	6,000–8,000 killed[26][27] 7,000 wounded (Ethiopian claim)[28][29]
Civilian casualties: 24,398 killed[30][31] 1.9 million displaced[32] (see § Casualties and human rights violations)

Close

Ethiopian military involvement began in response to the rising power of the Islamic Courts Union, which operated as the de facto government in the majority of southern Somalia by late 2006. In order to reinforce the weak Ethiopian backed TFG, troops from the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) began deploying into Somalia during June 2006. Six months later during December 2006 the combined ENDF/TFG coalition, alongside a covert US military contingent, launched a full-scale invasion to topple the Islamic Courts. The ICU's organizational structure disintegrated, ENDF/TFG forces entered Mogadishu in the last days of December. In early 2007 an insurgency began, centered on a loose coalition of Islamic Courts loyalists, volunteers, clan militias, and various Islamist factions, of which Al-Shabaab eventually assumed a pivotal role. In the same period, the African Union (AU) established the AMISOM peacekeeping operation, sending thousands of troops to Somalia to bolster the besieged TFG and ENDF. The Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), the successor to the ICU, further incited Islamist rebels and participated in the fighting.

Over the following two years, the ENDF, the TFG and AMISOM, became entrenched in a protracted struggle against an escalating insurgency, leading to the displacement of nearly one million inhabitants from Mogadishu.^[35][36] Piracy of the coast of Somalia, which had been previously suppressed by the ICU, greatly proliferated.^[4] While Mogadishu witnessed fierce fighting, insurgents launched offensives across southern and central Somalia in late 2007 and 2008, regaining territory previously lost by the ICU. During 2008, Al-Shabaab started taking control of significant tracts of southern Somalia and began governing territory for the first time.^[37] The Ethiopian military occupation faltered,^[38] and by Autumn 2008, more than 80% of the territory the ICU lost during the invasion was recaptured by the insurgency.^[39] By November, the insurgency had effectively won.^[40] By December 2008, the TFG only had control over parts of Mogadishu and the city of Baidoa.^[41] That month TFG President Abdullahi Yusuf resigned after stating that he had lost control of Somalia to the insurgency.^[42] The Ethiopian backed government remained weak and highly fragmented, as its fragility remained unchanged from its state prior to the invasion.^[38]

At the end of 2008, the ARS was assimilated into the TFG in an attempt to halt the growing insurgency and form a representative democratic government.^[43][33] During January 2009, former head of the Islamic Courts Union Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was elected president of Somalia. That same month, declaring victory and claiming to have eradicated the 'Islamist threat', ENDF forces withdrew from Mogadishu and Somalia, ending the two year occupation.^[33] By the time of the withdrawal, effectively all territory lost by the ICU during the full scale December 2006 and January 2007 invasion had been recovered by Islamist insurgents,^[44] including much of Mogadishu.^[45][33] Years into the present phase of the civil war, Ethiopia became re-involved and joined AMISOM in 2014 in order to counter the growth of Al-Shabaab.