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by Mustafa Haji Abdinur
01 January 2007
MOGADISHU (AFP) - Somalia's Islamist leaders have abandoned their last stronghold south of the capital as Ethiopian troops and government forces advanced towards the port city, but vowed to fight on.
Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said the port city of Kismayo fell after the government and its allies drove its rivals from the capital Mogadishu, where he ordered residents to turn in their weapons or face forced disarmament.
"Kismayo is already in the hands of the government. The Islamists have run away ... the airport and the seaport are free. They are still some mopping up operations," Gedi told AFP in Mogadishu on Monday.
He also urged the African Union (AU) to deploy peacekeepers, a move that was opposed by the Islamic Courts Union after its fighters took Mogadishu in June and extended a hold over the south and centre of the lawless country.
Gedi said there were no available casualty figures, but Kismayo residents reported two people were killed by retreating fighters and said nobody was in charge until the first government and Ethiopian troops arrived.
"The Islamists were so angry at people who were shouting 'We don't need you, we need the government' ... they opened fire and killed the two," said Leileila Sheikh Adam, a resident of the town.
She added that Kismayo was very tense, since local clan militia looted the Islamists' headquarters and took weapons.
"We now see government forces and the Ethiopians in Kismayo ... they have taken control of the town and there are celebrations everywhere," said Mohamed Bini, another resident.
"Our forces have fully taken control of Kismayo and we are going to take control of every position in town," Abdurasak Asdadud, a government commander, told AFP.
The loss of Kismayo capped a major turn of fortune for the Islamists, which began with direct Ethiopian military intervention from December 20 to back the weak transitional government based in Baidoa.
"Do not think that the Islamic courts have abandoned the country... we have left the cities but we remain in action and our enemies will face an insurgency," said Sheik Yaqub Ishak, an Islamist commander.
With the Islamists significantly weakened Monday, Gedi called for speedy deployment of AU peacekeeping troops.
"We are consulting with the African Union and the member states. They are still needed for their support in the pacification and stabilisation of the country," he told reporters.
"We would like the military observers and peacekeepers to come in to help us as soon as possible," he added.
The AU had sought the immediate withdrawal of Ethiopian troops, but the intervention had tacit US backing and was justified on the grounds that Ethiopia itself was threatened by the Islamists across its border.
In September, the AU endorsed plans to deploy nearly 8,000 east African soldiers to Somalia.
Gedi announced a three-day disarmament plan in the capital, where the government plans to relocate from Baidoa, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of Mogadishu.
He said local leaders, elders and civil society had agreed on the process and that if it was not voluntary, "the government has the support of Mogadishu to collect the weapons by use of force."
Alarmed by the conflict moving south, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki late Sunday said he will convene an urgent summit in the new year as chairman of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) regional group.
Turning a deaf ear to offers of peace talks, the Islamists have sought to paint the actions of the Ethiopian military as a foreign invasion, while the government has highlighted links between the "terrorists" and Al-Qaeda.
On Saturday Gedi said that some of those accused of bombing the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998 as well as an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya in 2002 were among the Islamists.
Somalia disintegrated into lawlessness after the 1991 ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. It was carved up among clan warlords, some of whom now back the government.
