 In 2006 , the Islamic Courts Union ( ICU ) , an Islamist organization , assumed control of much of the southern part of the country and promptly imposed <unk> 'a law . The new Transitional Federal Government ( TFG ) , established two years earlier , sought to re @-@ establish its authority . With the assistance of Ethiopian troops , AMISOM peacekeepers and air support by the United States , it managed to drive out the rival ICU and solidify its rule . On 8 January 2007 , as the Battle of Ras <unk> raged , TFG President and founder Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed , a former colonel in the Somali Army , entered Mogadishu for the first time since being elected to office . The government then relocated to Villa Somalia in Mogadishu from its interim location in <unk> , marking the first time since the fall of the Barre regime in 1991 that the federal government controlled most of the country . 
