Ethiopia sent troops into Somalia as part of a US and British-backed bid to topple the Shabaab's more moderate allies, the Islamic Courts Union, and replace them with internationally-backed transitional federal government. Although the courts union had managed to impose order on the lawless nation, which has been without a functioning government since 1994, it was suspected by Washington of harbouring foreign al-Qaeda fighters. Since the invasion, however, the country has reverted into all-out anarchy and clan warfare, with the increasingly brutal anti-Ethiopian insurgency costing thousand of lives and sparking a refugee crisis that has spilled into neighbouring Kenya.