In detail
Updated 20 February 2012 05:00 PM GMT
War, anarchy, drought and floods have left hundreds of thousands of Somalis in need of aid in one of the world's poorest and most violent countries.
The country has had no functioning government since warlords from rival clans ousted military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into conflict.
In 2006, Islamists restored relative calm when they took control of the capital Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia. Six months later they were defeated by government forces backed by Ethiopian troops, which remained in the country until early 2009.
Somalia's current interim government is virtually powerless, and depends on foreign backing and warlord alliances for its survival.
In recent years hardline Islamist insurgents have gained control of large parts of southern and central Somalia, including some of the capital.
Two groups, the powerful al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, are fighting to topple the fragile government, which they say is a puppet of the West. They want to impose a strict version of Islamic sharia law throughout the country.
African Union peacekeepers are in Somalia to help support the government against the insurgents.
Both Transitional Federal Government forces and insurgents use child soldiers - some forcibly recruited from displacement camps - the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF says.
The African Union force AMISOM has been strongly criticised for indiscriminately shelling civilian areas, killing civilians and causing mass displacement says the IDMC.
U.N. officials describe Somalia as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. An estimated 2.8 million Somalis need humanitarian aid due to a combination of fighting, displacement and poor harvests. The country has some of the world's highest malnutrition levels.
In July 2011, the United Nations declared a famine in parts of southern Somalia.
The self-declared state of Somaliland, in the north of the country, is relatively safe compared with the rest of Somalia. But thousands have been displaced by fighting between local government forces and an armed group called Sool, Sanaag and Cayn.
Another northern semi-autonomous region - Puntland - has become out-of-bounds for international aid workers because of worsening security.
Puntland wants to remain part of Somalia. Somaliland declared independence in 1991 and, although not recognised internationally, it has a functioning government, police force and currency.
Uprooted by war
Over 2.2 million Somalis have been forced to flee their homes, according to U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) figures for January 2011. More than 1.5 million are displaced internally and at least another 700,000 have fled across the border.
The displacement figures grew in 2011, as large numbers of people fled severe drought.
Mogadishu has become so dangerous since 2006 that the majority of its inhabitants have fled, leaving entire neighbourhoods empty.
Many of the uprooted have sought refuge with relatives and friends, often sharing cramped rooms with several other families. Others are in makeshift shelters.
So many people are camped along the 15 km (10 mile) stretch of road west out of Mogadishu towards the town of Afgoye that the United Nations has said it is probably the largest gathering of displaced people in the world, with 410,000 people living there in January 2011.
But most of the country's displaced are concentrated in southern and central regions where regular drought and high food prices make it hard to scrape a living.
Hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees have sought asylum in neighbouring countries, UNHCR says.
Hundreds have drowned making the dangerous sea crossing to Yemen, which they see as a gateway to wealthier parts of the Middle East and the West.
Others are crammed into sprawling camps in Dadaab in northeast Kenya, which are regularly hit by flooding and drought.
The Dadaab camps host about 380,000 refugees, but they were built in 1991 to accommodate a quarter of that, and were officially declared full in 2008. Up to five families share plots designed for one family, and more than 40,000 people squat outside the camp.
Many have also sought asylum in Ethiopia and Djibouti.
UNHCR says the international community has failed to respond adequately to the plight of Somalia's displaced people, and aid agencies have suffered a severe shortfall in funding.
In the absence of a functioning government, there is no bilateral aid to Somalia.
Drought and flooding
Some of the country's displacement is caused by persistent drought.
A large proportion of rural Somalis are semi-nomadic, but years of drought have forced many to move their families to towns and villages in search of food and water.
Agencies say many communities - particularly pastoralists - have used up all their emergency supplies and will need support for several years to recover.
In 2011, tens of thousands of people died when severe drought gripped large parts of the country and food prices soared. Large areas of the country are experiencing a severe food crisis and, in July, the United Nations declared a famine in the southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of south Somalia. It said 2.85 million people overall needed emergency food aid.
Hospitals and aid agencies reported a sharp rise in child hunger levels, even in the traditional breadbasket regions of Bay and Lower Shabelle.
Many fled to Mogadishu or across the border to Kenya and Ethiopia. UNHCR said in July 2011 it was struggling to keep pace with the volume of new arrivals.
Many of the worst-hit areas are controlled by al Shabaab, who have banned more than a dozen aid agencies.
A 2010 ban by al Shabaab on aid agencies pushed a growing number of people to flee to government-controlled areas in search of food and water. But local witnesses reported al Shabaab soldiers were preventing people from leaving.
In February 2012 the United Nations said that areas previously at famine levels had improved to what aid agencies call “emergency level food insecurity”, one level below famine.
Many people are likely to remain in crisis until the main August 2012 harvest, and the number is likely to increase from May when food stocks from the January harvest run out, the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit-Somalia (FSNAU) said.
Fore more on the food crisis, see AlertNet's East Africa hunger briefing.
In November 2006, just as the country was emerging from the grip of its worst drought in a decade, it was hit by floods that were described as the worst in 50 years.
They washed away homes, roads and bridges in south and central Somalia, affecting some 300,000 people.
Health crisis
Public infrastructure has crumbled, leaving most parts of the country without basic services and contributing to some of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world.
Most child deaths are from diarrhoea, respiratory infections and malaria, according to the U.N. Children's Fund, UNICEF.
Cholera is endemic in Mogadishu due to an absence of basic sanitation or a centralised water supply system, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says.
Polio re-emerged in 2005 from a strain that originated in Nigeria, three years after the crippling disease had been wiped out in Somalia. Despite the insecurity, a U.N. vaccination programme was carried out across the country and in early 2008 WHO said the virus had been eradicated again.
After the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, there were reports of toxic materials being washed up along Somalia's shoreline. Hundreds of people in fishing communities complained of acute respiratory infections, unusual skin conditions, bleeding mouths and sudden death after inhaling toxic materials. Some experts believe the chemicals, including some radioactive material, had been illegally dumped in Somalia's waters.
Delivering aid
Moving around Somalia is almost impossible. Roads have barely been maintained in years, militia and bandits sometimes open fire on convoys, and there are endless roadblocks where gunmen extort money and steal cargoes. Inter-clan fighting is common, making some areas inaccessible.
Aid access is extremely limited in central and southern Somalia where the needs are greatest. WFP suspended its aid to areas under al Shabaab control in southern Somalia in January 2010, affecting 1 million people, citing insecurity and al Shabaab demands for payment and bans on female staff.
The World Food Programme said it continued to feed people in Mogadishu and central and northern Somalia.
Al Shabaab has banned several international aid agencies from operating in Somalia.
Few international aid staff are posted in Somalia, where foreign workers are a prime target for kidnapping. However, plenty of international relief agencies operate through Somali staff and local partner agencies - although they too are targeted.
Aid agencies sometimes travel with their own security, but that can also be risky as militia are more likely to ambush them in search of guns and ammunition.
Ninety percent of food aid arrives by sea, according to WFP. But Western warships have had to be deployed to protect the shipments from pirates who prowl off Somalia's lawless coast.
In March 2010, the U.N. Somalia Monitoring Group said that as much as half of the food aid sent to Somalia is diverted to a network of corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants and local U.N. staff.
Donors are reluctant to fund aid because of problems of access and concerns about aid being diverted.
Government woes
The upheaval following the ousting of military dictator Barre in 1991 displaced some 2 million people and coincided with a serious drought.
The deadly combination of hunger and displacement pushed almost 4.5 million people - more than half the population - to the brink of starvation by 1992, according to a U.N. report issued five years later. It said 300,000 people, many of them children, died from hunger-related disease during this catastrophe.
In 1992, the United States sent in troops ahead of a U.N. force, but left two years later after tough resistance from warlords, including clashes in 1993 that killed 18 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of Somali militiamen.
Memories of this humiliating incident, which inspired Hollywood movie "Black Hawk Down", have left the international community reluctant to get involved in Somalia again.
The U.N. mission was also unable to end the fighting or safeguard humanitarian aid. It left in 1995.
There have been repeated attempts to restore normal government. In 2004, an interim government-in-exile was formed in Kenya, as Somalia was considered too dangerous a base.
The transitional government was plagued from the start by tensions between rival warlords and its arrival in Somalia was delayed by disagreements on where to house the government and whether to accept foreign peacekeepers.
A faction led by parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan decided to base itself in Mogadishu, while President Abdullahi Yusuf said it was too dangerous, and moved his faction to the provincial city of Jowhar, 90 km (55 miles) north of the capital.
The first prime minister of the interim government, Mohammed Ali Gedi, resigned in late 2007, deeply unpopular for his refusal to negotiate with Islamists. He was succeeded by Nur Hassan Hussein.
Yusuf resigned in December 2008 after becoming increasingly isolated both nationally and internationally. He was blamed for hindering a U.N.-hosted peace process and lost parliamentary support over his decision to sack Hussein.
Parliament elected a new moderate Islamist president, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, in early 2009. Ahmed headed the sharia courts movement that brought some stability to Mogadishu and most of south Somalia in 2006, before Washington's main regional ally Ethiopia invaded to oust them.
His hardline former allies declared war on his government and called him a traitor.
Ahmed picked Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke to be prime minister in a power-sharing government intended to end civil conflict. Sharmarke resigned in September 2010 over tensions with Ahmed, and the following month he was replaced by Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.
However, Mohamed was forced out by a deal struck in June 2011 in Kampala between the president and speaker of parliament that extended the beleaguered administration's mandate by 12 months.
Most MPs opposed the Kampala agreement and called for the impeachment of Parliamentary Speaker Sharif Hassan for abuse of power.
Abdiweli Mohamed Ali replaced Mohamed as prime minister in June.
Islamist opposition
Islamist militia loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) took control of Mogadishu in 2006, and restored some law and order before being ousted by Ethiopian troops sent in to bolster the weak interim government.
Al Shabaab started out as the youth and military wing of the UIC. Some exiled hardline al Shabaab leaders have been based in Eritrea, which is also keen to oust its old enemy Ethiopia from Somalia. The United States lists al Shabaab as a terrorist organisation. The group has declared allegiance with al Qaeda, and has links with rebels in Yemen. It was also behind attacks in Uganda in July 2010 that killed at least 79 people.
Another key rebel group is Hizbul Islam, an umbrella organisation of four groups whose leaders had previously participated in the UIC administration of 2006. In 2009, they united with the aim of replacing Ahmed's government with a hardline Islamic state.
President Ahmed tried to bring members of Hizbul Islam into his administration, but its leader hardline cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys refused to join.
Hizbul Islam and al Shabaab fought together against the government in Mogadishu, but they were rivals in other parts of the country.
In December 2010, the two agreed to merge.
Between them, the two factions control much of Somalia while the government retains a tenuous hold over parts of Mogadishu.
Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca is a moderate Islamist group aligned with the government. The group is led by Sufi clerics and has fought and successfully beaten back al Shabaab in parts of central Somalia. Stung by some al Shabaab practices including desecration of graves, it has vowed to oust the group from other areas. It says the Somali war is sponsored by al Qaeda and other forces, and has nothing to do with Islam.
Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca briefly joined the government in March 2010, but left in September that year saying the government had not fulfilled its promises under a power-sharing deal. The group said it would continue fighting al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam.
When the UIC took control of Mogadishu and a swathe of southern Somalia in June 2006, they fought a coalition of warlords styling themselves as a counterterrorism alliance. By late September, they held all the country's main ports except for those in the northern enclaves of Puntland and Somaliland.
While they signed a pact to recognise Yusuf's government, their formation of a national council, new sharia courts and militia movements were seen as a challenge to the government and soon eclipsed it.
The Islamists sought initially to present a moderate face, saying they wanted to bring order to anarchic Mogadishu. And in many ways, they did. The harbour opened briefly and many of the city's residents said they felt safe for the first time in years.
But many Somalis - although Muslims - disliked the Islamic Courts' extreme stances, which included public executions, restrictions on women's ability to work, a ban on watching soccer's World Cup finals and crackdowns on "un-Islamic" hairstyles.
And the rise of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys - a hardline Muslim cleric on U.N. and U.S. "terrorist" lists - fuelled fears the Islamists wanted a rule resembling that of Afghanistan's Taliban.
Washington made clear it believed the Islamists were linked to al Qaeda, and accused them of sheltering the suspects behind 1998 bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
Ethiopia, a U.S. ally, deployed its troops across the border in 2006 to defend the interim government, and by the end of the year admitted its soldiers were fighting the Islamists.
The United Nations said Eritrea - Ethiopia's arch-enemy - had sent arms to the Islamists, while the Islamists said U.S. money was pouring into Mogadishu to support their enemies.
The perception, justified or otherwise, that U.S. money funded Mogadishu's warlords turned the fighting into a proxy war between Islamist militants and Washington, which was laced with commercial and political motives.
Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies took back Mogadishu at the end of 2006, and seized the last remaining Islamist stronghold in the south on New Year's Day 2007.
But the Islamists have regained large swathes of territory and, by July 2009, they controlled much of southern and central Somalia, and parts of the capital.
Having failed to end the insurgency, Ethiopia withdrew its troops in early 2009.
Kenya began military attacks against al Shabaab in Somalia in October 2011, following several kidnappings on Kenyan soil, which Kenya blamed on the militants.
Ethiopia sent troops to central Somalia in November 2011.
Outside intervention
Many analysts say that U.S. fears of al Qaeda involvement were probably initially baseless but became a self-fulfilling prophesy. In January 2007, al Qaeda urged the Islamists to launch an Iraq-style insurgency against the Ethiopian military in Somalia.
A U.S. gunship attack on a village in southern Somalia in early 2007 - the first known direct U.S. military intervention in Somalia since its failed peacekeeping mission in 1994 - turned into a PR fiasco when it turned out that the 20 or more people killed were civilians, and not fugitive al Qaeda suspects.
Rights groups say various sides, including the Ethiopians, have used excessive force with little regard for civilian casualties.
About 6,500 people were killed in 2007 in Mogadishu alone.
The AMISOM force was deployed early 2007 to support the Somali peace process in the wake of the ousting of the UIC.
But the AU peacekeepers have been unable to stem the Islamist insurgency and have found themselves under attack. They complain of being under-funded and under-staffed. However, they have succeeded in reviving Mogadishu's port, turning it into a thriving business centre.
While U.N. Security Council members agree the situation is dire, many are reluctant to send U.N. peacekeepers, and most observers say a U.N. peacekeeping mission is unlikely while there is no peace to keep.
Despite a U.N. arms embargo, arms shipments to Somali militants have not stopped.
The Security Council slapped sanctions on Eritrea in December 2009, saying it was sending weapons to southern Somalia. Asmara has denied backing rebel groups.
A U.N. report in March 2010 suggested weapons deliveries from Eritrea to Somalia had slowed and Asmara's support for Somali rebels was now more diplomatic, logistical and financial.
In 2008, the Security Council received reports that "elements" of the AU peacekeeping mission and the transitional government were involved in arms trafficking, and most ammunition available in Somali arms markets had been supplied by government and Ethiopian troops.
Clan divisions
Most political decisions in Somalia are related to clan loyalties.
The country's four major clans - the Dir, Isaaq, Hawiye and the Darod - are collectively known as Samaale. They are primarily nomadic and live in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.
The original Somali nation was divided up between British, French, Italian and Ethiopian colonies, which accounts for the spill-over of Samaale into neighbouring countries today.
Two other clans, the Digil and the Raxanweyn, are known as Sab. Most Sab live in villages in southern Somalia where they farm and keep livestock.
The most powerfully armed clan is the Hawiye group, whose sub-clans have a long history of conflict that has defied all attempts at pacification.
The Al Shabaab rebel group comprises many Hawiye fighters.
Though competition between Somalia's clans is nothing new, former dictator Siad Barre - a Darod who ruled Somalia for over 20 years - fuelled conflict by manipulating clan and sub-clan loyalties.
When he was ousted in 1991, the scene was already set for widespread violence. The group that helped topple him - the United Somali Congress (USC), drawn from the Hawiye clan - then split over who should rule.
A wealthy businessman, Ali Mahdi Mohammed, backed by the Hawiye's Abgal sub-clan, nominated himself as president. But General Mohammed Farah Aideed, the USC's main military commander backed by another sub-clan, the Habr Gedir, wanted power for himself.
Former President Abdullahi Yusuf, who quit in 2008, was a Darod. He backed the U.S.-led "war on terror" and was no friend to radical Islamic groups within Somalia. After the Islamists' ouster from Mogadishu, one of the main challenges facing Yusuf and the interim government was to make peace with the Hawiye clan based in the capital.
Analysts say a lasting political settlement is unlikely unless the government agrees to share power in a way acceptable to the main clans.
Somalia's President Ahmed is a Hawiye, but has chosen as prime minister a Western-educated Darod to try to broaden the appeal of his government at home and abroad.
Timeline
Updated 20 February 2012 05:00 PM GMT
1960 - Independence sees unification of Somali peoples ruled since late 19th century by Britain and Italy
1969 - Army seizes power in bloodless coup. Major-General Mohamed Siad Barre takes control
1990 - Rebel Somali National Movement, United Somali Congress and Somali Patriotic Movement form alliance to topple Siad Barre
1991
Power struggle between rival clan warlords Mohamed Farah Aideed and Ali Mahdi Mohamed erupts into violence. Thousands of civilians killed and wounded
Former British protectorate of Somaliland declares unilateral independence
1992
Rival warlords sign U.N.-sponsored ceasefire in early 1992 but fail to agree on monitoring provisions
Apr - U.N. Security Council approves deployment of ceasefire observers. Siad Barre flees into exile days later
Sep - Warlord Farah Aideed returns to Mogadishu and rules out deployment of U.N. troops
Dec - Security Council endorses full-scale military operation led by United States. U.S. Marines hit Mogadishu's beaches in "Operation Restore Hope"
1993
Jan - At U.N. talks in Addis Ababa, feuding clan militias sign first of many pacts to stop fighting
Oct - Eighteen U.S. Army Rangers and one Malaysian killed when Somali militias shoot down two U.S. helicopters in Mogadishu. Hundreds of Somalis die in ensuing fighting. U.S. mission formally ends in March 1994
1995 - U.N. peacekeepers withdraw
1998 - Puntland region in northern Somalia declares independence
2000
May - Somali National Peace Conference brings together more than 2,000 participants
Aug - Transitional National Government (TNG) is established to try to unite warring Somalis
2003
Sept - Factions agree to a transitional constitution and set five-year term for elections after TNG mandate expires in August
2004
Oct - Ethiopian-backed warlord Abdullahi Yusuf elected Somali president by lawmakers. In December, new Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi swears in 27 ministers in Kenya
2005
Feb - Somali president and prime minister arrive in central Somali town of Jowhar for first time since their government was formed in Kenya
2006
Jan - Somalia's president and parliamentary speaker reach deal to end government rift by holding parliamentary meeting inside Somalia within 30 days
Feb 26 - Parliament holds first meeting inside country since interim government was formed
Mar - U.N. warns famine could kill 10,000 people a month if rainy season fails
Fierce fighting breaks out in Mogadishu between warlords and Islamist militants. European Commission (EC) officially recognises Somalia's interim government, and signs pact with government making it easier for EC to channel aid to Somalia
May - Another bout of violence breaks out between Islamic militia and warlords, killing around 150 people
Jun - Islamist militia take control of Mogadishu
Arab League begins mediation between Islamists and government. Interim government and Islamic Courts movement recognise each other in their first direct high-level talks in Sudan
Jul - Ethiopian troops reported to have crossed into Somalia. Ethiopia denies this. U.N. Security Council expresses willingness to consider long-delayed deployment of foreign peacekeepers. Interim government postpones peace talks, accusing Islamists of violating a ceasefire
Growing number of ministers quit interim government, after trying unsuccessfully to remove prime minister from power. Diplomats say move is in protest at Gedi's reluctance to engage with Islamists, and is aimed at facilitating peace talks. One minister is assassinated outside a mosque in Baidoa
A conventional passenger plane flies in and out of Mogadishu's re-opened international airport for first time in 11 years
Aug - Somalia's cabinet dissolved
Gedi swears in slimmed-down, 31-member cabinet but doesn't appoint any Islamists
Sep - Islamists and interim government meet at talks hosted by Arab League and agree to unified military front, but stall on political issues over Islamists' demand for Ethiopia to withdraw troops
East African Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) continues to push forward a plan to send peacekeepers to Somalia, despite opposition by both Islamists and interim government
Gunmen kill Italian nun working at a children's hospital in north Mogadishu
Somalia's first known suicide bombing targets president in Baidoa. Attack kills five people including Yusuf's brother. Administration blames al Qaeda
Islamists take control of port city of Kismayu, saying they're defending country from any invasion attempts by Ethiopia or Uganda
Oct - Islamists declare holy war against Ethiopia, which they accuse of invading Somalia to help the interim government. Ethiopia still denies any incursion
Nov - Islamists capture town near semi-autonomous Puntland, which has strong ties with Ethiopia. Transitional government and Islamists fail to meet for scheduled peace talks
Report by U.N. Monitoring Group says 10 countries, including members of IGAD bloc of six eastern African countires, continue to violate U.N. arms embargo
Dec - Aid agencies say worst floods in years kill more than 100 people and affect at least 350,000
Security Council passes resolution endorsing African peacekeepers for Somalia
Islamists tell Ethiopia to leave Somalia within seven days or face war. Fighting starts on Dec. 19 following end of deadline
Ethiopia publically admits military involvement in Somalia. Ethiopian jets strike Islamist-controlled airport of Baledogle, Somalia's biggest military airfield, and Mogadishu
Somali government forces and Ethiopian allies march into Mogadishu after Islamist rivals abandon the city
2007
Jan - Somali government and Ethiopian troops seize Kismayu, the Islamists' last remaining stronghold. U.S. forces launch air strikes in south Somalia, targeting suspected al Qaeda cell. More U.S. strikes follow over coming months. Three-month state of emergency declared by interim government
Feb - Security Council authorises African Union peacekeeping mission
Mar - First Ugandan peacekeepers arrive. Insurgents drag soldiers' bodies through Mogadishu during heavy fighting with Ethiopian and government forces. Ethiopian helicopter gunships fire rockets on insurgents' strongholds in north Mogadishu in first use of aerial power in capital
May - U.N. aid chief John Holmes says aid workers are only reaching about a third of thousands who fled Mogadishu. He calls it world's worst displacement crisis in terms of numbers and access. World Food Programme says increasing piracy is threatening food supplies
Jun - Ethiopia says will withdraw troops once peace is established
Jul - National reconciliation conference opens in Mogadishu amid upsurge in violence. Islamist leaders refuse to attend
Sep - New opposition alliance meets in Asmara, Eritrea, and says it will campaign for military and diplomatic solution to conflict
Oct - Prime Minister Ghedi resigns
Nov - U.N. special envoy Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah says Somalia is worst humanitarian crisis in Africa. Nur Hassan Hussein sworn in as new prime minister. U.N. says 1 million Somalis now displaced, and nearly 200,000 fled Mogadishu in previous fortnight
2008
Jan - Many aid agencies pull out international staff after series of kidnappings and killings, including incidents in Puntland, formerly regarded as relatively safe
May - Ethiopia says it will keep troops inside Somalia until Islamists are defeated
U.N. Security Council allows countries to send warships to tackle pirates in Somalia's waters
Jun - Government signs three-month ceasefire pact with opposition Alliance for Re-Liberation of Somalia, which says Ethiopian troops will leave Somalia within 120 days. Islamists reject deal, vowing to continue fighting until all foreign troops have left
Jul - Head of U.N. Development Programme in Somalia, Osman Ali Ahmed, killed by gunmen in Mogadishu. World Food Programme says surge in attacks on aid workers is threatening entire aid response, and warns resulting humanitarian disaster would rival that of 1992-3 famine
Oct - Coordinated suicide car bombings across relatively peaceful regions of Somaliland and Puntland kill at least 30 people
Somali government and faction of Alliance for Re-Liberation of Somalia sign ceasefire in Djibouti and agree to national unity government, dependent on Ethiopian troop withdrawal by early 2009
Fighting reported between Islamic Courts and al Shabaab Islamist factions near Mogadishu
Nov - President Abdullahi Yusuf says Islamists control most of country and warns government could completely collapse
Yusuf and Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein fail to agree new cabinet or form new transitional government by Nov. 12 deadline set by Africa's Inter-Governmental Authority on Development. Hardline Islamists do not attend new round of peace talks in Djibouti. Ethiopia says will withdraw troops by end-2008
Dec - Yusuf sacks Hussein. Parliament votes to reinstate him, but Yusuf names former interior minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled as new prime minister, deepening rifts in fractured government. Guled resigns, saying he does not want to be stumbling block to peace process, and Hussein reinstated. Yusuf resigns and Parliament speaker Sheikh Aden Madobe becomes interim president in line with the constitution. Elections due to be held within 30 days
2009
Jan - Ethiopia begins withdrawing its troops
Parliament elects new president, moderate Islamist Sheikh Sharif Ahmed who headed sharia courts movement
WFP threatens to withdraw after two WFP staff shot dead
Feb - President chooses Western-educated Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke as prime minister in a power-sharing government. Reports of Ethiopian troops back in Somalia, denied by Addis Ababa. Fighting in Mogadishu between government forces, AMISOM and newly-formed umbrella group Hizb al-islam
Apr - Islamic cleric Sheikh Aweys returns after two year exile. Sharia law endorsed by parliament. Thousands return to Mogadishu following lull in fighting. Donors pledge $213 million for security
May - Aweys leads major offensive on Mogadishu which displaces over 46,000 people. Violence and severe drought fuels fears of worsening humanitarian crisis
Jun - United Nations says 122,000 civilians have fled Mogadishu since early May. Al Shabaab threatens to "invade" Kenya. An average 7,000 Somalis a month are crossing into Kenya, U.N. staff tell Reuters
Aug - President Sharif imposes emergency rule. Over half of Somalis need emergency aid, says United Nations
Sep - Senior figures in Hizbul Islam join government
Oct - Former allies Hizbul Islam and al Shabaab clash in south
Nov - WFP warns of risk of famine after United States suspends aid deliveries over inadequate policing. Al Shabaab demands WFP buys all food aid locally and ends imports
Dec - Al Shabaab bans all U.N. agencies
2010
Jan - Clashes surge in central Somalia between al Shabaab, Hizbul Islam and pro-government Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca, displacing 63,000 people in two weeks. WFP suspends aid in the south citing insecurity and al Shabaab demands for payment, affecting 1 million people
Feb - Al Shabaab moves hundreds of reinforcements into Mogadishu. Clashes in south and central Somalia continue
Mar - U.N.'s Monitoring Group on Somalia report says food aid has been diverted for military use, and WFP contractor has been a close ally of Hizbul Islam leader
Jul - AU says will increase AU force to 8,000 troops
Aug - Fighting intensifies in Mogadishu
Sep - Suicide attack on airport targets international delegations. Sharmarke resigns over tensions with president
Oct – UNHCR says 60,000 people fleeing towards Kenyan border, after fresh fighting broke out between pro-government forces and al Shabaab in centre and south of country, following Sept-early Oct spike in clashes in Mogadishu
Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed appointed prime minister
Dec – An additional 4,000 AMISOM troops approved
2011
Jan - First government executions since 1991
Feb – All parties to conflict have attacked thousands of civilians since May 2010, Human Rights Watch says
Parliament votes to extend its mandate for another three years
Major military offensive launched against al Shabaab
Kenya closes border because of nearby fighting between al Shabaab rebels and pro-government forces
Mar – Burundi deploys additional troops to AMISOM. Fighting intensifies in towns bordering Ethiopia and Kenya, with unconfirmed reports that Kenyan troops crossed border and engaged in fighting
Apr – International Maritime Bureau says 50 percent increase in piracy attacks in first quarter compared to 2010, and dramatic rise in attackers' use of violence
May – Puntland authorities warn rebels against declaring independence in breakaway region Ras Assayr
Aid groups warn of potential humanitarian crisis resulting from extreme droughts, insecurity
Jun – Mandate of transitional government and parliament extended by one year, with elections to be held by Aug. 20, 2012. Under the deal, Mohamed resigns. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali becomes new prime minister
Ugandan AMISOM commander killed. Interior Minister Abdishakur Farah killed in suicide attack
Al Shabaab declares allegiance to new al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri, following assassination of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan
Somali police say Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Africa's most wanted al Qaeda operative, has been killed in Mogadishu
In Puntland, inter-clan violence continues
Jul - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni calls for foreign air support to help root out Islamist militants in Somalia
Aug - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visits Mogadishu - the first by a leader from outside Africa in almost 20 years
Al Shabaab withdraw from most of their bases in Mogadishu after sustained pressure from Somali and African Union troops
United Nations declares famine in southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle
Oct - Kenya begins military attacks on al Shabaab in Somalia following several kidnappings on Kenyan soil which Nairobi blames on the militants
Nov - Ethiopia deploys troops to fight al Shabaab in central Somalia
Dec - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visits Mogadishu
2012
Jan - Al Shabaab bans the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - one of the few international agencies delivering food in rebel-controlled areas
The U.N. special envoy to Somalia moves to Mogadishu for the first time in 17 years
Feb - United Nations says an exceptional harvest after good rains and food deliveries by aid agencies have ended famine in Somalia for now but food stocks could run out again in May
