Somali opposition figures on Friday named a senior Islamist as chairman of a "liberation" alliance vowing war on Ethiopian troops and demanding the exit of Ugandan peacekeepers from the Horn of Africa nation.
"Resistance to the occupation is a legitimate and sacred right. It is a national duty as well as a religious obligation for all citizens," read a final communique from the week-long conference of hundreds of opposition delegates in Eritrea.
They chose 43-year-old Sheikh Sharif Ahmed - one of the two highest-ranking leaders of Somalia's Islamic Courts movement - to steer the new opposition grouping. Sharif's Shariah courts group wrested Mogadishu and most of south Somalia from warlords in mid-2006.
Credited by Somalis with bringing stability for the first time in 15 years but also criticised for hard-line religious practices, its six-month rule ended at the New Year when allied Ethiopian and Somali government troops chased them out.
An Islamist-led insurgency has raged since then. The communique said the new opposition movement would be called the "Alliance For The Re-Liberation Of Somalia" or ARS - a small modification on the previously announced "Alliance For The Liberation Of Somalia."
Organisers said the Islamists would get about 40 percent of seats in the alliance's 191-member central committee, former MPs about 25 percent and members of the diaspora about 16 percent. A former Somali parliament speaker was elected head of the central committee.
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