ARPCT
Founded in February 2006 ARPCT ( A lliance for the R estoration of P eace and C ounter- T errorism , "Alliance for the Re-establishment of peace and against terrorism") was an association of important clan leaders and warlords of the region in and around the Somali Capital Mogadishu . Its main objective was the fight against the Union of Islamic Courts .
The neighboring country Ethiopia may have been involved in the creation of the ARPCT. Against the will of the Somali interim government and in breach of the UN arms embargo, the alliance received substantial support from the USA in order to counter the growing influence of the Union of Islamic Courts - an association of Islamic courts that locally enforce Sharia law and some of which are representatives of the Cooperation with al-Qaeda are suspected - to counter. Hundreds of thousands of US dollars are said to have flowed from the CIA to the ARPCT. However, this support for the largely unpopular warlords of the ARPCT increased popular support for the Union of Islamic Courts.
The attack by the ARPCT on the Union in May 2006 sparked the worst fighting in the Somali civil war of the past decade, as a result of which the ARPCT lost its territories in Mogadishu. On July 10, 2006, the Union declared that the last ARPCT clan chief Abdi Hasan Awale Qeybdiid surrendered along with hundreds of his followers. Thereafter, the Union ruled Mogadishu and large parts of the country until December 2006, before it was pushed back again by a military offensive of Ethiopia and the transitional government of Somalia .
See also
swell
- ^ FAZ-online of May 16, 2006, America's Warlords
- ^ New York Times, June 8, 2006: Efforts by CIA Fail in Somalia, Officials Charge
- ↑ Spiegel-online of July 12, 2006: Somalia: No peace in sight