TIMELINE: Somalia’s President and PM decide to resign

Wed Dec 24, 2008
Source: Reuters

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf has decided to resign, his spokesman said. The announcement followed the resignation of a politician Yusuf named prime minister last week, who said he did not want to be an obstacle to peace.

Here is a timeline of events since Islamists first seized the capital, Mogadishu:

June 2006 – The Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) seizes Mogadishu from U.S.-backed warlords and takes control of parts of southern Somalia.

December 28 – Islamists flee Mogadishu ahead of a joint Ethiopian and Somali government force which captures the city.

January 8, 2007 – Abdullahi Yusuf arrives in Mogadishu for the first time since he became president in 2004.

August 30 – Yusuf winds up a six-week-long peace conference, which has no visible impact on growing insurgency. Islamists and some other opposition figures boycott the talks.

March 26, 2008 – Islamist fighters seize Jowhar, the most significant of several towns recently captured.

May 1 – U.S. air strike kills al Shabaab leader Aden Hashi Ayro.

August 18 – Somalia formally signs a peace deal with some opposition figures, but the pact is rejected by hardliners.

August 22 – Al Shabaab insurgents seize Kismayu, a strategic southern port, after fighting that killed 70 people.

August 25 – U.N.’s Food Security Analysis Unit says more than 3.2 million people need humanitarian aid.

October 3 – Islamists, now controlling swathes of southern Somalia, warn Western charities working there not to meddle in their affairs.

November 12 – Rebels take port of Merka, 90 km (56 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, after government-aligned militia leave.

November 14 – Al Shabaab fighters move into Elasha town near Sinkadheer, where Ethiopian troops are based. Sinkadheer is 15 km (9 miles) south-west of Mogadishu.

– President Yusuf admits Islamist insurgents control most of the country and raised the prospect his government could completely collapse.

November 15 – The Sirius Star, a Saudi supertanker, is hijacked by pirates 450 miles southeast of Mombasa. The tanker is carrying $100 million of oil.

November 28 – Ethiopia says it will withdraw its troops from Somalia by the end of this year, piling pressure on Somalia’s feuding government.

December 10 – Somalia’s moderate Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed returns to Mogadishu for the first time in two years. A local rights group says 16,210 civilians have been killed in fighting since then.

December 11 – Ethiopian Prime Minister Zenawi says that AU peacekeepers have asked Ethiopian troops planning to leave the country to help them quit Mogadishu too.

December 14 – President Yusuf sacks Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, saying the government has failed to extend security to the nation. The next day parliament votes to reinstate him.

December 16 – Yusuf names former interior minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled as prime minister, snubbing parliament.

December 24 – Yusuf announces he will resign on December 27, hours after newly appointed Guled resigns.