- Washington “follows with interest” Morocco’s openness onto Africa (John Kerry)Posted 11 years ago
- The trial of South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius opened in Pretoria on Monday.Posted 11 years ago
- USA welcomes efforts of King Mohammed VI in MaliPosted 11 years ago
- Egypt’s population reaches 94 millionPosted 11 years ago
- Mugabe celebrates his 90thPosted 11 years ago
- Moroccan Monarch to Build a Perinatal Clinic in BamakoPosted 11 years ago
- King Mohammed VI handed a donation of bovine semen for the benefit of Malian breeders.Posted 11 years ago
- Moroccan King’s strategic tour to Africa: Strengthening the will of pan African Solidarity and stimulating the south-south cooperation mechanisms over the continentPosted 12 years ago
- Senior al-Qaida leader killed in AlgeriaPosted 12 years ago
- Libya: The trial of former Prime Minister al-Baghdadi AliPosted 12 years ago
Somalia: clan affiliation vs. Islamist unity
Tension between the faction and Hizbul Islam sparkled several weeks ago, when faction’s leader, Ahmed Madobe had entered into an agreement with Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government and Kenya, and signed a secret deal with them.
The Hizbul Islam leader said by signing the deal Madobe had agreed to fight against Hizbul Islam and al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants in Somalia’s southern Jubba and Gedo regions.
Ras Kamboni was the largest and the well-armed of the four Islamist factions that formed the Hizbul Islam coalition in early 2009.
Observers in Somalia say the fracturing of Hizbul Islam was inevitable because Hizbul Islam is at its core nationalist and largely based on clan membership. Members of the Ras Kamboni group belong to the Ogaden sub-clan of the Darod, and when al-Shabab, a transnational extremist group, began threatening the traditional power base of the Ogaden, observers say Ras Kamboni had little choice but to put clan affiliation ahead of Islamist unity.