WORLD> Africa
Kenya to impose sanctions on Somali president
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-16 20:11

It's not clear what will become of Somalia's U.N.-backed administration, particularly as it wields virtually no authority in the face of powerful Islamic insurgents who have taken over most of the country. But the long-running dispute between the president and prime minister will do nothing to stabilize the fractured administration.

A file picture of Somalia's Prime Minister Hassan Hussein Nur in July 2008. Somalia's president announced Sunday he was sacking the cabinet but Nur challenged the move, in a fresh clash between the two rivals that further threatened fragile peace efforts. [Agencies]

The government has been sidelined by Islamic militants and is veering toward collapse. The insurgents held a news conference in the capital, Mogadishu, on Sunday, a brazen move that shows their increasing power, and vowed never to negotiate with the leadership.

Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a dictatorship and then turned on one another. The country is now at a dangerous crossroads.

Ethiopia, which has been protecting the Somali government, recently announced it would withdraw its troops by the end of this month. That will leave the government vulnerable to Islamic insurgents, who began a brutal insurgency in 2007.

In the past, Islamists have brought a semblance of security to the country, but have done it by carrying out public executions and floggings. On Saturday, fighters loyal to the most powerful arm of the Islamist movement, al-Shabab, publicly executed two men accused of killing their parents.

Civilians have suffered most from the violence surrounding the insurgency, with thousands killed or maimed by mortar shells, machine-gun crossfire and grenades. The United Nations says there are 300,000 acutely malnourished children in Somalia, but attacks and kidnappings of aid workers have shut down many humanitarian projects.

The lawlessness allows piracy to flourish off the coast; bandits have taken in about $30 million in ransom this year.

The United States worries Somalia could be a terrorist breeding ground, and accuses al-Shabab, "The Youth," of harboring the al-Qaida-linked terrorists who blew up the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

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