Word: somali
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Prospects for the new government in Mogadishu seemed bleak. The coalition of rebels, which represents three Somali clans that have feuded for centuries, named hotel owner Ali Mahdi Mohammed, 52, interim President until elections could be held. But Mahdi's party, the United Somali Congress, grew angry at his appointment by a clique of elders and attacked the action as "hasty" and "unnatural." The tenuous troika could swiftly come unglued...
...rebel fighters from the United Somali Congress called in reinforcements, the U.S., Italy and France flew 800 diplomats and other foreign residents to safety in separate rescue missions last week. Soldiers looted the American embassy as soon as the last helicopter took off. Reported Italian Ambassador Mario Sica, who left Saturday: "The city is being sacked as in the days of Genghis Khan...
...Isaq rebellion did not collapse under the army's attacks and soon controlled the countryside in the north. Its success was matched by the Ogadeni clan, which launched the Somali Patriotic Movement and gradually took over the country's southern region. Those rebels were joined six months ago by the United Somali Congress, organized by the Hawiye clan, which predominates in the center of the country and in Mogadishu. The Hawiyes had been outraged in July 1989 when government troops opened fire on street demonstrations in the capital and killed 450 protesters. Last week the Hawiyes were doing much...
...Somali dictator was in fact a client of both superpowers at different times. The Soviet Union supported his brand of "scientific socialism," then also lent its backing to his neighbor, Ethiopia, when it turned Marxist in 1977. Somalia was at war with Ethiopia over the disputed Ogaden province, so Siad Barre reversed his allegiance and appealed to the U.S. Washington was happy to provide him with $100 million in military and economic aid annually in the mid-1980s to counter Moscow...
Somalia's three rebel fronts dismissed Siad Barre's call for a cease-fire and negotiations last week, and the United Somali Congress marched reinforcements into Mogadishu for what it called the "final offensive." In a joint statement issued in London, the three groups announced their agreement to form a "transitional government that will pave the way for the restoration of democratic institutions...