By Guled Mohamed
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – A Somali government envoy accused Islamist militia on Wednesday of marching towards the strategic southern port of Kismayo in a bid to expand their control of the Horn of Africa nation’s south.
But the Islamists immediately denied the allegation, saying it was propaganda promoted by their arch-enemy Ethiopia.
“The Islamic Courts’ forces are marching to occupy Kismayo,” Somalia’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Abdikarim Farah, told Reuters on the sidelines of an African Union meeting in Addis Ababa.
“This is a challenge to the TFG (Transitional Federal Government) … The Islamic Courts are not going to succeed by choosing military means, it has to renounce this option.”
The rise of Somalia’s Islamist movement since the start of the year has challenged the Western-backed interim government’s aspirations to reimpose central rule for the first time since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted by warlords in 1991.
Kismayo is the southernmost major port in Somalia and is controlled by an independent authority — the Juba Valley Alliance — led by new Defence Minister Col. Abdikadir Adan Shire, a warlord known as Barre Hiraale.
ENMITY WITH ETHIOPIA
Islamist information officer Bedri Hashi told Reuters that reports of a move on Kismayo were false.
“I am not aware of any such militia movements. We have no plans to attack Kismayo or any other place,” he said.
“That man (Farah) is speaking on behalf of Ethiopia.”
However, Islamist sources have said the movement had approached Barre Hiraale in the past month and encouraged him to hand over the town, since many of the militias protecting it have clan alignments close to the Islamists.
Born out of sharia courts that sprang up in lawless Mogadishu in the mid-1990s, the Islamist movement developed into a strong political and military force before taking Mogadishu and a southern swathe of the country this year.
While Somalis have been delighted to see some order restored to the areas taken by the Islamists, many are perturbed at signs of fundamentalist practices like closing video parlours and enforcing dress codes.
Ethiopia backs the interim government and says the Islamists are led by “terrorists”. The top Islamist figure, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, is on U.S. and U.N. lists of people linked to terrorism.
Asked about Wednesday’s controversy over Kismayo, official government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said he had no concrete information.
Juba Valley Alliance spokesman Bile Abdulle said the militia moving towards Kismayo were from that authority.
“The troops said to be advancing towards Kismayo are led by our deputy chairman and the head of security,” he said.
“We have a working relationship with the Islamic courts.”
Source: Reuters, Sept 13, 2006
