SUMMARY

Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca (ASWJ) is a group consisting mainly of people that belong to the Sufi part of Islam. The more radical Islamist movements, such as Hizbul Islam but also al-Shabaab, targeted and persecuted clerics of Sufi faith but were also destroying Sufi shrines. ASWJ thus perceives its struggle against the more hard-line Islamist groups both as a struggle to save the people of Somalia, but also as a struggle against Hizbul Islam's ideology and interpretation of Islam.

The groups have been pitted against each other in and around Beledweyne in Hiiraan region of central Somalia. ASWJ entered into a power-sharing agreement in 2010, and the conflict has thus also had a link to the state-based conflict in Somalia. Further, in July 2010 the local commander for Hizbul Islam in Beledweyne announced that his forces left Hizbul Islam to join al-Shabaab instead.

The non-state conflict between Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca and Hizbul Islam is first included in UCDP data in 2010. In January of that year violent clashes flared up in the Hiiraan region, resulting in over 25 battle-related deaths.