Islamist leader returns to Somalia town two years later

Sheikh Sharif, Somalia's top Islamist
leader, has returned to his Jowhar
stronghold, north of Mogadishu, two
years after being ousted by an Ethiopian
invasion, a local official told AFP.

01 November, 2008

MOGADISHU (AFP) – Somalia's top Islamist leader, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has returned to his Jowhar stronghold, north of Mogadishu, two years after being ousted by an Ethiopian invasion, a local official told AFP.

Sheikh Sharif, who has spent most of the two years in exile, flew in from Nairobi with a delegation from his Islamic Courts Union (ICU) movement, a key step in light of his acceptance of a UN-sponsored deal to bring back stability.

"The delegation led by Sheikh Sharif has landed at the Jowhar airstrip and they were taken to the town where they will meet the people," said a local Islamist official, Sheikh Abdullahi Ahmed.

Thousands of people had gathered in the town, located around 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of Mogadishu, to greet the influential cleric on his return to the area.

The 44-year-old Sharif, who is the chairman of the opposition umbrella movement Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), signed an agreement last month in Djibouti for an Ethiopian troop pullback and a ceasefire.

The town of Jowhar is currently held by the ICU.

In 2006, the ICU had taken control of much of Somalia, triggering an invasion by neighbouring Ethiopia, which propped up an embattled transitional government and soon ousted the Islamists.

While the ICU's political leadership largely fled to Eritrea, the movement's military and youth wing, the Shebab, switched to guerrilla warfare.

The Shebab, which rejected the Djibouti deal, have relentlessly targeted Ethiopian troops, Somali government forces and African Union peacekeepers, and recently made substantial territorial gains in southern and central Somalia.