Summary here and here.

Analysis du jour:

For the last six months of 2006, Somalia had started to look to Washington like Taliban West, the Afghanistan of Africa. A loose coalition called the Union of Islamic Courts had accomplished the welcome task of freeing much of the country from the terror of entrenched warlords who had kept it in chaos for 16 years. At long last a measure of order calmed the streets, but only by enforcement of strict Islamic Shariah law (echoes of the Taliban) that was especially harsh on minorities.

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Whatever al-Qaida masterminds may threaten, however, Somali Muslims are not the Taliban, and Somalia is not like Iraq. We do not need to worry about Somalia becoming a new front in the war on terror.

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The population of Somalia is remarkably homogeneous, with no major ethnic or linguistic barriers. Historically Somalis trace their identity to one of six tribal clans, all linked to one legendary founding ancestor. In Iraq the civil war has coalesced around generic categories of Sunni versus Shia, dredging up rivalries that date to the origins of Islam. The Muslims in Somalia are virtually all Sunni. You can get killed in Somalia because of who your great-grandfather was, but not for the way you pray.

In the absence of a stable central government, clan membership has been the only viable way to function in the society. Mutual economic support within clans is coupled with strategic alliances across kinship ties to adapt to changing conditions on the ground. Recent years have seen the rise of Mafia-like urban clan fiefdoms. The so-called Islamist takeover of the country last June was about justice rather than religious dogma.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban arose as a foreign-supported jihad against the Soviet presence and also as a way out of the continuing nightmare of armed ethnic factionalism. But foreign occupiers left Somalia almost half a century ago. Article

Follow-up on the kidnapping situation reported earlier in the week:

Ethiopian rebels freed seven Chinese workers on Sunday who were seized in a deadly oilfield raid that was one of the worst attacks to date on Beijing’s growing interests in Africa.

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Adurahmin Mohammed Mahdi, a London-based spokesman for the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), said the seven were handed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“They are all very healthy. They are uninjured and very happy,” he told Reuters by telephone.

The ICRC confirmed the news and said the men were in Degabur, a small town south of the regional capital Jijiga. They would return to Addis Ababa on Monday, accompanied by Ethiopian and Chinese representatives, it said in a statement.

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Mahdi said two Ethiopian men were also freed with the Chinese after successful negotiations between the rebels’ armed wing, ICRC officials and local Ogaden elders.

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Beijing had condemned Tuesday’s raid, which analysts said exposed the risks of its drive to use Africa’s under-developed energy resources to feed a rapidly growing economy.

African governments have generally welcomed the Chinese push, which comes free of the political conditions often imposed by Western nations. But there is concern in some quarters Beijing may be gaining too much control, treating local workers badly and flooding Africa with cheap, inferior goods. Article