Published On: Sun, Sep 30th, 2012

Somalia’s al Shabaab rebels pull out of Kismayu bastion

(Reuters) – Somalia’s al Shabaab rebels retreated from the southern port of Kismayu overnight, abandoning the last major bastion of their five-year revolt to an offensive by African Union and Somali government troops.

The loss of Kismayu a day after it was attacked by Kenyan and Somali soldiers backed by air strikes is a major blow to the al Qaeda-linked rebels, weakening morale and depriving them of revenue from taxing local businesses and shipping.

“We moved out our fighters … from Kismayu at midnight,” al Shabaab spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, told Reuters on Saturday, promising to strike back. “The enemies have not yet entered the town. Let them enter Kismayu which will soon turn into a battlefield.”

The Kenya Defence Force (KDF) said two regional rebel commanders, Sheikh Hassan Yakub and Sheikh Abdikarim Adow, were killed in air strikes in the city late on Friday and that another five insurgents were killed in combat. Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s spokesman for military operations, told Reuters the rebels had suffered no losses.

Al Shabaab, which formally merged with al Qaeda in February, has pulled out of a number of urban areas including the capital, Mogadishu, in recent months under pressure from African Union (AU) peacekeeping forces and the Somali government.

The government in Mogadishu said Kismayu was now under its control and called on residents to co-operate with security agencies and AU forces in improving security.

“The Somali Armed Forces with support from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have secured the port town of Kismayu from the grip of the terror group of al Shabaab who controlled the town for nearly three years,” it said in a statement.

Kenyan military spokesman Col. Cyrus Oguna declined to comment on the statement by the Somali government, saying Kenyan troops, fighting under the AMISOM banner, were yet to take control of the port facilities.

Locals confirmed the militants had pulled out under the cover of darkness but said Kenyan and Somali soldiers were still camped on the city’s outskirts.

Analysts warned against prematurely assuming the rebels had disappeared, saying they must have left a few fighters behind.

“This is not an indication of al Shabaab having abandoned armed struggle and there is no evidence they are keen on surrendering. They will continue to be a great nuisance for a very long time,” said Rashid Abdi, a Somalia expert and an editor with Kenya’s Nation Media Group.

The insurgents, who once controlled swathes of the lawless Horn of Africa country, have turned to guerrilla tactics, harrying the weak government of newly-elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud with suicide bombings and assassinations.

“NOW WE ARE TERRIFIED”

There were reports of looting in some areas of the city.

“Al Shabaab has not perished, so the worry is what next,” said local elder Ali Hussein.

One man who was loudly celebrating the departure of al Shabaab fighters from the city was shot dead, residents said.

“These masked men came from behind him and hit him with several bullets right in the head … Now we are terrified. Everyone in Kismayu is dumb, silent. We are afraid to talk on the phone outdoors,” said Halima Nur, a mother of three.

Four more people, including a Muezzin – the person who calls prayers at a mosque – were shot dead in the same manner in the afternoon, residents told Reuters.

Although al Shabaab brought a semblance of law and security in Kismayu, its strict version of Islamic law alienated a huge portion of the population, residents said.

“We hope life will improve if the Somali and AU troops enter the town,” said local Farah Hussein.

Residents said the fighters who abandoned Kismayu had moved to jungles that lie between Kismayu and Afmadow to the north, as well as to other towns north of the port city like Jamame and Kabsuma.

The rebel group, which counts foreign al Qaeda-trained fighters among its ranks, is seen as one of the biggest threats to stability in the Horn of Africa. It has received advice from al Qaeda’s leadership, counter-terrorism experts say.

(Additional reporting by Duncan Miriri in Nairobi; Writing by Richard Lough and Duncan Miriri; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar

MOGADISHU | Sat Sep 29, 2012


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There have been no elections in Somalia since 1967 and there won’t be any this year either. But the country has a new parliament (appointed on the advice of clan elders) who have elected a new president, and the new government actually now controls a significant part of the country. The world’s only fully “failed state” may finally be starting to return to normality.A failed state is a horrendous thing: no government, no army, no police, no courts, no law, just bands of armed men taking what they want. Somalia has been like that for more than 20 years, but now there is hope. So much hope that last month the United Nations Security Council partially lifted its embargo on arms sales to Somalia in order to let the new Somali government buy arms, and last week the U.S. government followed suit.The new government replaces the “Transitional Federal Government”, another unelected body that had enjoyed the support of the UN and the African Union for eight pointless years. Then last year a World Bank report demonstrated the sheer scale of its corruption: seven out of every ten dollars of foreign aid vanished into the pockets of TFG officials before reaching the state’s coffers.Fully a quarter of the “national budget” was being absorbed by the offices of the president, the vice-president and the speaker of parliament. The fact that after all that the TFG still only controlled about one square kilometre (less than one square mile) of Mogadishu, the capital, while the rest of the shattered city was run by the Islamist al-Shabaab militia, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, also contributed to the international disillusionment.That tiny patch of ground, moreover, was being defended not by Somali troops but by thousands of Ugandan and Burundian soldiers of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Unisom). More than 500 of them had lost their lives defending the useless TFG, and the foreign donors were losing faith in the mission. But the Unisom soldiers did achieve one major thing: they fought al-Shabaab to a standstill in Mogadishu.In August 2011 the Islamist militia pulled its troops out of the capital. That created an opening, and the international community seized it. It ruthlessly initiated a process designed to push the TFG aside: Somali clan elders were asked to nominate members for a new 250-seat parliament, which was then asked to vote for a new president and government.It was obviously impossible to hold a free election in a country much of which was still under al-Shabaab’s control, but this process also had the advantage that it allowed the foreigners to shape the result. The corrupt officials who had run the old TFG all re-applied for their old jobs, but none of them succeeded.The new president who emerged from this process, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, is a former academic and human rights worker who only entered politics in 2011. No whiff of corruption clings to him, and he has worked tirelessly to bring about national reconciliation. And he has the wind at his back: just after he was chosen last September, a Kenyan force evicted al-Shebaab from Somalia’s second city, Kismayo.That still leaves about 95 percent of the country’s territory and three-quarters of its population beyond the government’s direct control. Al-Shabaab still rules in most rural parts of the country, and Ethiopian troops and their militia allies control much of the western border areas. Pirates with a lot of guns and money effectively dominate much of the north.One whole chunk of the country, calling itself Somaliland, has declared its independence (and runs its affairs much more peacefully and efficiently than any other part of Somalia). No other country recognizes its independence at the moment, but it used to be a British colony, quite separate from Italian-ruled Somalia, and in principle it can make exactly the same case for independence as Eritrea did when it broke away from Ethiopia.The worst problem facing President Mohamud is the venal and cunning politicians who have exploited the clan loyalties that pervade every aspect of Somali life to carve out their own little empires. Some are frankly and unashamedly warlords; others, including all the senior officials in the defunct TFG, masquerade as national politicians but work for their own interests.They have not gone away, nor have the clan rivalries that kept the fighting going for 21 years. Drawing up the rules and sharing out the power for a new federal Somalia (none of which has yet been decided) will give them plenty of opportunities to make trouble for the new president and regain their former power. Mohamud definitely has his work cut out for him.Nevertheless, he has strong UN and African Union support, and he now has a chance to create a spreading zone of peace in the country and start rebuilding national institutions. So last week the United States declared that it was now willing to provide military aid, including arms exports, to Somalia. Weirdly, that actually means that thing are looking up in the world’s only failed state.Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.