Somalia’s president told residents of the only town his government controls on Tuesday that they have a week to give up their weapons, after which ”every single gun in Baidoa” will be seized by force.
It was unclear how President Abdullahi Yusuf, whose government has no military, will make good on the threat to disarm Baidoa.
Two lawmakers have been shot in the town over the past week, one fatally, and more than 20 others have resigned in disgust.
Meanwhile, Islamic militants with alleged ties to al-Qaeda have only tightened their grip on southern Somalia and the capital, Mogadishu, further marginalising the official government.
”The government is taking strict security measures so everybody in Baidoa who has arms should bring them to the government,” Yusuf said from his base in Baidoa, 250km from Mogadishu.
The administration was formed two years ago with the support of the United Nations to help Somalia emerge from more than a decade of anarchy, but it has established no real authority.
Four ministers resigned on Tuesday, bringing the total number of lawmakers who have stepped down to more than 20. Somalia has about 200 MPs who were appointed along clan lines to accommodate disparate groups that have the support of ordinary Somalis.
”Because of … the lack of a clear policy, we have decided to resign and join the other former ministers who have already stepped down,” said a statement released on Tuesday by the four lawmakers, who include the Deputy Minister for Treasury.
Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi barely survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament over the weekend, but insisted on Tuesday that the government would continue to function.
”My government has survived political turmoil, and right now I hope it will stand on its own two legs soon,” Gedi told journalists after Tuesday’s resignations.
The Arab League has been trying to arrange peace talks between the government and the Islamic group for Wednesday in Khartoum, Sudan, but Gedi said he had spoken to the leadership and the talks were being postponed until August 17 so he can stabilise his government.
”Then I will go to Khartoum unconditionally,” he said. It was not immediately clear if the militants will attend. Both sides for the past few weeks have been vacillating on whether they would attend.
The Islamic militants have imposed strict religious courts, raising fears of an emerging Taliban-style regime. The United States accuses the group of harbouring al-Qaeda leaders responsible for deadly bombings at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
The militants brought a remarkable amount of control to a country that has seen little more than chaos since 1991, when long-time dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled. On Monday, 275 militiamen with 50 pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns were sent to central Somalia to break up the bases of Somali pirates who have been kidnapping sailors.
”They will also help people in those areas set up their own Islamic courts and local administrations,” Sheik Mohamud Siyad Inda Adde, the group’s security chairperson, told the Associated Press.
Somalia has had no coast guard or navy since Barre’s regime.
Piracy rose sharply last year, with 35 attacks reported, compared with two in 2004, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
The bandits target passenger and cargo vessels for ransom or loot.
The US and other Western powers have cautioned outsiders against meddling in Somalia, which has no single ruling authority and can be manipulated by anyone with money and guns. But there is little sign the warning has been heeded.
Two men suspected of spying for Ethiopia, which supports the government, were in the custody of the Islamic group in Mogadishu and were under investigation, said Sheik Moalin Arafat, a commander of one of the group’s courts.
On Tuesday, Kazakhstan said it was investigating reports that a plane bearing the ex-Soviet republic’s national flag delivered weapons for Islamic militants in Somalia twice last week. Somalia’s government alleges the deliveries were arms from Eritrea.
Officials in Kazakhstan, a vast oil-rich Central Asian nation, had been involved in a string of illegal arms-dealing scandals after the 1991 Soviet collapse that included sales of military equipment to countries including Ethiopia and Congo. Kazakh air operators also often make their planes available for charter. — Sapa-AP