Six killed in Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon
Six killed in Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon
Subject : International relations
Section: Places in news
Context: Clashes at the Ein el-Hilweh camp broke out between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement and rival Islamist groups. Among the six dead was a Fatah commander, the movement confirmed.
About Ein el-Hilweh camp
Established in 1948, the restive Ein-el-Hilweh camp is the largest with more than 63,000 registered refugees, some estimates say the population is higher. Thecamp, situated near the southern city of Sidon, falls outside the jurisdictions of the Lebanese security forces which is the reason why rival factions like Fatah and Al-shabab al-Muslim group. More than 4,79,000 refugees registered with UN live in 12 camps in Lebanon and have dire security risks.
About Fatah
Fatah is a Palestinian nationalist and social democratic political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestinian Liberation organisation. Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, is the chairman of Fatah. Fatah has revolutionary struggle in the past and has maintained a number of militant groups.
Al shabab
Al-Shabaab (Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen) is a jihadi insurgent group active in Somalia and, in recent years, increasingly in Kenya. The group developed in the early 2000s parallel to, and later in partnership with, the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) that overran the capital, Mogadishu, and installed themselves as administrators over Mogadishu and much of Somalia in 2006.
Al-Shabaab comprised the young, radical armed wing of the UIC; their full name translates to ‘Movement of Jihadi Youth.’ The group however outlasted the UIC, which was ousted from the capital in December 2006 by Ethiopia, which feared it would threaten Ethiopia’s own security as well as regional and international interests. Al-Shabaab went on to launch a successful guerrilla insurgency, conquered and administered large parts of Somalia, including crucial port cities such as Kismayo. Estimates of its size range from 5,000 to 9,000 fighters.
