Picture From Foreign Policy
Timeline Courtesy of The BBC
Islamist advance
2006 February – Transitional parliament meets in central town of Baidoa for the first time since it was formed in 2004.
2006 March-May – Scores of people are killed and hundreds are injured during fierce fighting between rival militias in Mogadishu. Worst violence in almost decade.
2006 June-July – Militias loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts take Mogadishu and other parts of south after defeating clan warlords.
Ethiopian troops enter Somalia.
2006 July-August – Mogadishu’s air and seaports are re-opened for the first time since 1995.
2006 September – Transitional government and Islamic Courts begin peace talks in Khartoum.
Somalia’s first known suicide bombing targets President Yusuf outside parliament in Baidoa.
Islamists retreat
2006 December – Ethiopian and transitional government put Islamists to flight, capturing Mogadishu.
2007 January – Islamists abandon their last stronghold, the southern port of Kismayo.
President Abdullahi Yusuf enters Mogadishu for the first time since taking office in 2004.
Air strikes in south against al-Qaeda figures are first direct US military intervention in Somalia since 1993.
2007 March – African Union troops land in Mogadishu amid pitched battles between Islamist insurgents and government forces backed by Ethiopian troops, after UN Security Council authorised six-month peacekeeping mission.
2008 May – The UN Security Council allows countries to send warships to Somalia’s territorial waters to tackle pirates.
2009 January – Ethiopia completes withdrawal of troops, announced the previous year, and Al-Shabab capture Baidoa, formerly a key government stronghold.
Meeting in Djibouti, parliament elects moderate Islamist Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed president, extends transitional government’s mandate for another two years.
Al-Shabab highpoint
2009 May – Islamist insurgents launch onslaught on Mogadishu and advance in the south.
2009 October – Al-Shabab recaptures the southern port of Kismayo after defeating the rival Hizbul-Islam militia.
2010-12 – Famine kills almost 260,000, the UN says.
2010 January – UN World Food Programme withdraws from Al-Shabab areas of southern Somalia after threats to lives of its staff.
2010 February – Al-Shabab formally declares alliance with al-Qaeda, begins to concentrate troops for a major offensive to capture the capital.
2011 January – Pirate attacks on ships worldwide hit seven-year high in 2010, with Somali pirates accounting for 49 of 52 ships seized.
2011 July – UN formally declares famine in three regions of Somalia. Al-Shabab partially lifts ban on foreign aid agencies in south, and UN airlifts its first aid consignment in five years to Mogadishu.
Al-Shabab pulls out of Mogadishu in what it calls “tactical move”.
Kenyan intervention
2011 October – Kenyan troops enter Somalia to attack rebels they accuse of being behind several kidnappings of foreigners on Kenyan soil.
American military begins flying drone aircraft from a base in Ethiopia, Ethiopian troops return to central town of Guriel.
2012 February-May – Al-Shabab loses key towsn of Baidoa and Afgoye to Kenyan, African Union and Somali government forces.
New parliament, president
2012 August – Somalia’s first formal parliament in more than 20 years is sworn in at Mogadishu airport, ending eight-year transitional period. Pro-government forces capture the port of Merca south of Mogadishu from Al-Shabab.
2012 September – MPs in Mogadishu elect academic and civic activist Hassan Sheikh Mohamud president over the incumbent Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. First presidential election in Somalia since 1967.
2012 October – African Union and government forces recapture Kismayo, the last major city held by Al-Shabab and the country’s second-largest port, and the town of Wanla Weyn northwest of Mogadishu.
2013 January – US recognises Somalia’s government for the first time since 1991.
2013 June – Veteran Al-Shabab leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is taken into custody by government troops after he is ousted by more extreme Al-Shabab figure Ahmed Abdi Godane.
Spike in violence with various attacks by Al-Shabab, including on presidential palace and UN compound in Mogadishu.
2013 September – International donors promise 2.4 billion dollars in reconstruction aid in three-year ”New Deal”.
Shabab attacks Kenya
2013 September – Al-Shabab seize shopping centre and kill 60 people in Kenyan capital Nairobi, saying it is retaliation for Kenya’s military involvement in Somalia.
2014 May – Al-Shabab says it carried out a bomb attack on a restaurant in Djibouti, saying the country is used as a launch pad to strike Muslims.
2014 June – Al-Shabab claims two attacks on the Kenyan coast which kill more than 60, saying operations against Kenya would continue.
2014 September – Al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane killed in US drone strike. Government offers 2 million dollar bounty for his successor, Ahmad Omar.
2014 November – Government launches country’s first postal service in more than two decades. Mogadishu’s first ever cash withdrawal machine installed in a hotel.
2014 November-December – Al Shabab carry out mass killings in north-east Kenya, including on a bus and a camp of quarry workers.
2015 April – Al-Shabab claim responsibility for killing 148 people, mainly Christian students, at Garissa University College in northern Kenya.Kenya carries out air raids on Al-Shabab bases in Somalia in retaliation.
2015 May – US Secretary of State John Kerry pays brief visit to Mogadishu, the first officeholder to do so, a few weeks after Al-Shabab raid government quarter of the city and kill 17 people.
2016 February – African Union leaders agree on need for more funding and support for their military presence in Somalia after weeks of increased Al-Shabab attacks on public spaces and pro-government troops. Government and African Union troops recapture southern port of Merca that Al-Shabab briefly seized.
2016 November – Leaders of two Somali regions, Puntland and Galmudug, agree to respect a ceasefire in the disputed city of Galkayo. Fighting in the city reportedly displaced 90,000.
2017 February – Parliament elects former prime minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmajo, as president. Al-Shabab threatens to target anyone collaborating with him.
2017 March – Pirates seize tanker off coast of Puntland in the first hijacking of a large vessel in the region since 2012.
2017 May – President Mohamed at London conference calls for lifting of arms embargo to help defeat al-Shabab. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says conditions are now in place in Somalia for it to become a success story.
2017 October – Double truck bombing kills 350 people in Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab is prime suspect.
Displacement 