MOGADISHU, June 16 (Reuters) — Islamist militia, who control the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and other strategic towns, are seeking to expand their grip on Somalia by pushing northeast to the semiautonomous Puntland region, an official said.
Militias loyal to sharia courts ousted rival secular warlords from Mogadishu last week after battles that have killed 350 people since February.
They also seized the warlords’ last stronghold of Jowhar, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) north, and appear to be flanking the weak interim government’s base in nearby Baidoa in a rapid march across the Horn of Africa nation.
Militias backed by local clerics early Thursday surrounded Baladwayne, a government-allied town near the Ethiopian border — in striking distance of Baidoa.
A Puntland government official said Islamists were planning an uprising to take control of the relatively peaceful self-governed region, home of Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf.
“Local clerics who joined the Mogadishu courts are trying to make Puntland like Baladwayne,” Puntland State Assistant Interior Minister Ibrahim Artan said in a statement late Thursday. “We are aware of this and will take appropriate measures.”
The Islamists now control a sizable portion of southern Somalia, from coastal Mogadishu almost to the Ethiopian border.
Somalia’s interim government — the 14th attempt to bring real government to a country in chaos since the 1991 ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre — is too weak to enter Mogadishu and has helplessly watched the Islamists gain ground.
Source: Reuters, June, 2006
