Guriel

This city has been in conflict since the fall of the former Somali government in 1991. In 2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a militant Islamic organization, took control of most of central Somalia. Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, supported by Ethiopia, defeated the ICU in late 2006.^[1]

In 2007, Al-Shabaab, another Islamic extremist group born in southern Somalia, attacked Guriel, but the local paramilitary group Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a (ASWJ), born in response, took control of Guriel in 2010.^[2]

However, the conflict between ASWJ and Al-Shabaab did not stop after that, and the Ethiopian army also intervened in the conflict.^[3][4] In addition to that, Galmudug, a regional government created in central Somalia, joined the conflict in the name of Somali government forces.^[5][6]

In October 2021, another battle broke out between ASWJ and Galmudug, displacing most of the inhabitants of Guriel (5,000 houses, 20,000 people).^[7][8] Both the main hospital and the community hospital were destroyed by fire and shelling.^[9]

By the end of the year, an estimated 120 people had died in this recent spate of fighting.^[10]