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Factions in the Somalian Islamist Group the Supreme Islamic Courts Council will use an upcoming conference in Djibouti to unify their insurgency, Stratfor sources reported April 24.

Factions within the Somalian Islamist Group the Supreme Islamic Courts Council (SICC) will use a May 10 conference in Djibouti to unify their insurgency, Stratfor sources reported April 24.

Though fighting in Somalia will intensify as a result, the SICC is not likely to dislodge the foreign-backed government of Somalian President Abdullahi Yusuf.

Once controlling central and southern Somalia, the SICC split into two factions following the December 2006 Ethiopian intervention in Somalia. One group of senior political leaders, led by Sheikhs Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sharif Ahmed, fled underground and then into exile in the Eritrean capital, Asmara. That faction still orchestrates attacks by loyal militias and operatives inside Somalia.

The more militant wing of the SICC, called the al-Shabaab and led by Sheikh Hassan Turki and Adan Hashi Ayro, remained in Somalia. It has continued to wage a guerrilla campaign in southern and central Somalia against Ethiopian and Somalian government targets. Typically, it conducts small-scale assaults in Mogadishu or takes over small towns and villages, pulling out hours or days later before government reinforcements arrive.