Alliance for the Liberation of Somalia
The Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia ( English Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia , Italian Alleanza per la ri-Liberazione della Somalia , abbreviation ARS ) is a in September 2007 in Eritrea , founded alliance of opponents of the Transitional Federal Government and especially the military presence of Ethiopia in Somalia .
The alliance has a central committee with 191 members and a 10-member executive committee. 45% of the seats in the Central Committee are occupied by radical Islamists, 25% by former members of the Somali transitional parliament and the remaining 30% by other opposition activists and representatives of civil society .
history
Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia at the end of 2006 to support Somalia's beleaguered transitional government and disempower the Union of Islamic Courts , and have been present in the country ever since. Fierce fighting between the Ethiopian and interim government troops and their opponents drove hundreds of thousands to flee Mogadishu . The Ethiopian engagement was controversial because of the traditionally tense Ethiopian-Somali relations (see Ogaden ), parts of the Somali population viewed Ethiopia as an occupying power. Many leaders of the Union of Islamic Courts and other critics and opponents of the transitional government went into exile in Eritrea , which is hostile to Ethiopia.
In September 2007, the Somali Congress for Liberation and Reconstitution took place in Asmara , Eritrea as a "counter-conference" to the National Reconciliation Conference in Mogadishu . Among the more than 300 delegates were members of the Union of Islamic Courts, other opposition members and former members of the transitional parliament. Prominent participants were Hassan Dahir Aweis , Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden and Hussein Mohammed Farah . The result of the congress was the establishment of the Alliance for the Liberation of Somalia ( ALS), which was later renamed the Alliance for the Liberation of Somalia .
The main goal of the ARS was the immediate withdrawal of Ethiopia from Somalia. This should be achieved through negotiations or through military means.
In June 2008, moderate parts of the ARS in Djibouti signed a peace agreement with the transitional government, according to which a ceasefire would last for 90 days and the Ethiopian troops would withdraw as soon as they were replaced by UN troops in sufficient numbers. The al-Shabaab group, which is considered to be radical Islamist (which had never joined the ARS) then intensified its struggles against the transitional government, and radical sections of the ARS rejected the agreement. As a result, tensions arose between the radical "Asmara wing" under Hassan Dahir Aweis and the moderate "Djibouti wing" under Sharif Sheikh Ahmed within the ARS. The "Djibouti Wing" continued negotiations and reached an agreement on power-sharing and the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops, which was implemented in early 2009. After the resignation of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed , Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was elected as the new President on January 31, 2009.