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Somalia: A timeline of change in a troubled country

Here is a timeline of changes, intervention, and mediation in 5 bite-sized bits.

3. 2007

Mohamed Sheikh Nor/AP/File
A civilian (c.) walks past two Ethiopian soldiers (l.) and Somali government forces on a truck with a mounted gun outside Villa Somalia housing President Abdullahi Yusuf, in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in this January 2007 file photo.

  • By Scott Baldauf Staff writer

January: Government forces take Islamist stronghold of Kismayo.

April: More than 320,000 Somalis leave their homes in Mogadishu because of fighting. Many end up in the Kenyan refugee camp at Dadaab, making it the world’s largest refugee camp. Others remain in displacement camps outside Mogadishu, living off foreign food aid.

Aug. 22: Al Shabab – an offshoot of the Union of Islamic Courts – seizes Kismayo. By November President Abdullahi Yusuf admits he has lost control over most of the country to insurgents.

Dec. 29: Yusuf resigns. By the end of January 2008, Ethiopian troops have withdrawn from Somalia. Al Shabab fighters take over the former transitional capital of Baidoa.

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