January 2007 in Africa

• The Islamic Courts Union collapses in the Battle of Jilib, and flees from its last major stronghold in Kismayo towards the Kenyan border. (MSNBC)
• The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia assumes control of Kismayo after the Islamic Courts Union retreats. (MSNBC)
• Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi calls for a disarmament of the country's militias and businesses, and offers an amnesty to former members of the Islamic militias. (Shabelle)

• Mohamed Lamine Sanha, the former suspected leader of several coup attempts in Guinea-Bissau, dies after being attacked by armed men in civilian clothing 2 days earlier. News of Sanha's death sparks a riot in a Bissau suburb that results in the death of one person. (Al Jazeera English)

• Somali gunmen open fire at Ethiopian troops stationed in Somalia's capital Mogadishu resulting in at least one death. (Reuters) (AP via ABC News)
• Fighting breaks out between Somali protesters and Ethiopian troops in the town of Beledweyne after an official is arrested for refusing to hand over a member of the ousted Islamic Courts Union. Three people are reportedly injured. (BBC)

• A U.S. AC-130 gunship attacks Al Qaeda operatives during the ongoing fighting in the Battle of Ras Kamboni (CNN)
• Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Somalia's interim President, arrives in the capital, Mogadishu, his first visit since Mujahideen forces of the Islamic Courts Union fled advancing Ethiopian troops and interim government soldiers. (BBC)

• Sudan adopts a new currency; the Sudanese pound replaces the Sudanese dinar. The change is part of reconciliation measures after the end of the Second Sudanese Civil War. (E Canada Now)
• Somali official says that a senior al-Qaeda suspect responsible for bombing U.S. embassies in East Africa eight years ago is possibly killed in a U.S. airstrike in the Battle of Ras Kamboni. (AP via ABC News) (CNN) (CBS)
• A general strike starts in Guinea, with trade unions calling for pay rises, the return to jail of Mamadou Sylla and the resignation of President Lansana Conté. (BBC)

• A top U.S. official says that he believes the airstrike in Somalia on the previous day failed to kill the al-Qaeda suspects they targeted. (BBC)
• In the ongoing Operation Mountain Fury, NATO forces kill as many as 150 Taliban militants in Afghanistan's Paktika province. (BBC)

• Somali government and Ethiopian forces capture the town of Ras Kamboni, and pursue fleeing Islamist forces. (AP)

• Martial law is declared in Somalia. (BBC)

• War in Somalia: An African Union delegation is in Somalia's capital Mogadishu to discuss the deployment of international peacekeeping troops. (AP via ABC News) (BBC)

• A Sudanese airliner, Air West Flight 612, carrying 103 people, is hijacked by a lone gunman and diverted to N'Djamena, Chad. The Air West flight lands at the airport in N'Djamena and the hijacker is arrested. (Contra Costa Times) (BBC)

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