MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somalia’s beleaguered capital fell early Friday to Ethiopian and Somali government troops who marched quietly into the city before dawn and took control without firing a shot.
An Islamic alliance that had controlled Mogadishu and much of the country evaporated Thursday after a string of military losses, and in the security vacuum, violent looting broke out in the capital. Residents awoke this morning to find the Ethiopians and troops of Somalia’s U.N.-backed transitional government taking positions.
The transitional government was formed in 2004 to give the Horn of Africa country its first effective, nationwide administration since 1991, but today was the first time its troops were actually able to enter Mogadishu.
“The fighting is over,” Ali Mohammed Gedi, prime minister of the transitional government, declared late Thursday, shortly before hundreds of troops began pouring into the city.
Officials of the government spent most of Thursday meeting with clan leaders to ensure there would be no remnants of the Islamic forces hiding in Mogadishu when they entered, and that the local population would welcome their soldiers.
Mogadishu temporarily reverted to its familiar clan-based chaos as the Islamic Courts Union disintegrated and former warlords attempted to resume their former positions of power. Angry youths rampaged in the streets, stealing mobile phones, looting homes and setting up checkpoints.
Clan militias reclaimed their old neighborhoods. Offices and homes of the leaders of the former Islamic alliance bore the brunt of the looting.
It was unclear whether the weak transitional government and its small military force could impose order on Mogadishu, much less the rest of Somalia. Officials of neighboring Ethiopia, who provided most of the firepower to oust the Islamic alliance, said they would help, but that they would not remain in Somalia for a long period.
Mogadishu residents said the looting Thursday made them fearful of another long period of instability.
“We are going back to the former chaos and violence,” said Ilyas Ahmed, whose brother was killed Thursday during a cell-phone robbery. “The courts were not good, but at least we had security.”
Gedi called for the looting and violence to end. “Anybody found disturbing the security will be met with swift punishment,” he said.
U.S. and Ethiopian officials accused the Islamists of plotting to establish a Taliban-style regime and use Somalia as a base to launch terrorist attacks. Islamists said they were merely trying to restore peace and stability to Somalia. Over the past six months they had seized Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia.
On Thursday, after days of military losses that left it bottled up in Mogadishu, the Islamic Courts Union officially disbanded. As he left Mogadishu, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, the chairman of the courts, said Islamists were leaving to avoid a battle that might have killed civilians. Many former fighters ditched their uniforms and shaved their beards.
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