SUMMARY
SICS (Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia), which before 2006 was most commonly referred to as UIC (Union of Islamic Courts) or ARS (Alliance for Re-liberation of Somalia) (ARS/UIC), had increasingly begun to encroach on the secular warlords’ authority in the Somali capital Mogadishu between 2004 and 2006. The Islamic courts were not a new phenomenon, but had aptly been providing law and order through sharia law to an unseen degree since the 1991 collapse of the Somali state. Fearing a loss of power, the warlords morphed together to form an alliance under the name ARPCT (Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism) with the aim of ridding Mogadishu of the Islamic Courts. Superficially, the difference between the ARPCT and the SICS appeared to be ideological in nature but the conflict was as much about leadership within sub-clans, business rivalries and the struggle within Mogadishu’s Hawiye clans for political dominance (the SICS was linked with the Habar Gedir sub-clan and the ARPCT with the Abgaal and Murosade sub-clan). A January 2006 clan fight between two prominent businessmen’s militias, one supporting the Islamic Courts and the other fiercely opposed, served as a precursor to the ensuing conflict and crystallized the emerging battle lines between the ARPCT and the SICS as well as underscored the mixture of reasons (sub-clan power struggles, beliefs and business rivalries).
The SICS took the establishment of ARPCT as a virtual declaration of war and a part of a broader USA strategy against them. The chairman of SICS at the time, Sheikh Hussein Sherif Ahmed, accused the ARPCT leaders of being responsible for years of lawlessness in Somalia and being puppets of outsiders (the USA allegedly backed the ARPCT). On 19 April 2006, Islamic clerics, including the chairman of the Islamic Court Union, declared a holy war against the ARPCT and appealed for people to join the ranks of the Islamist force. Statements such as these were made: “As it says in the Koran, the fight against those who are promoting hostility and fighting against Islam is a holy war”; “Any war against the warlords is a holy war and a sacrifice in the name of Allah”; “Let us eliminate these warlords and set up a peaceful administration supported by the vast majority of people in Mogadishu” and “Down with the agents of America and down with agents promoting Satanic teaching”.
The ARPCT - SICS violence took the form of increasingly fierce battles between their respective militias where rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and assault rifles were often indiscriminately used (thus leading to many civilian casualties); interspersed with lulls during which clan elders made futile attempts at mediating truces and the two warring parties strategically re-armed. The first serious battle took place only days after the February 2006 establishment of the ARPCT and was a slight victory for the SICS. Over the next coming months, it became increasingly apparent that early SICS success was not a fluke and that the SICS forces were more well-prepared, strategic and disciplined. The morale of the SICS was also likely to be higher as Mogadishu residents were more sympathetic to the SICS than to the ARPCT. By June 2006 the ARPCT was decisively defeated. In the aftermath of the conflict, most of the ARPCT leaders and their militias gathered in the southern town of Jowhar, but others chose to join the Islamic militias.
The ARPCT - ARS/UIC violence occurred almost exclusively in Mogadishu.
The non-state conflict between ARPCT and ARS/UIC is first included in UCDP data in 2006. In February that year, clashes in Mogadishu resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
