Islamic militia on Wednesday seized control of a strategic township near the Ethiopian border from Somalia’s transitional government, further expanding their territory, officials and residents said.
There were no reported casualties in the clash, which saw only a brief exchange of fire at about 7am local time.
Islamic militia commander Yusuf Makaraan said his fighters took control of Beledweyne, the capital of the Hiraan region, 300km north of Mogadishu, after the Ethiopia-backed, government-appointed governor, Yusuf Ahmed Hagar, fled.
”We have full control of Beledweyne,” Makarran told Agence France-Presse by phone.
”The governor fled and we captured one battlewagon — a pick-up truck mounted [with] a machine gun — from his fleeing forces,” he added.
”People closed their business centres and are very much concerned that likely renewed clashes between Islamists and Yusuf Hagar clan members” might resume, said resident Mumin Derow.
The growing influence of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS), which controls much of southern Somalia, including the capital Mogadishu, has threatened the authority of the transitional government based in Baidoa, about 250km north-west of the capital.
The Islamists have shown interest in controlling other parts of Somalia, but have denied accusations of planning to raid Baidoa, where Ethiopian troops have been deployed to protect the fragile government.
The deployment itself and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi’s refusal to engage Islamists in talks has led to mass resignations of ministers, compelling President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed to fire the whole Cabinet.
The Islamists have refused to participate in Arab League-mediated peace talks in Khartoum until the Ethiopian troops pull out, apparently complicating efforts to restore a functional authority in this impoverished, war-torn African nation.
The brief clashes in Beledweyne, which links southern Somalia to the agriculturally rich central regions, came after Hagar refused to formally hand over control to the Islamists.
Local cleric Sheikh Farah Moalim formed Islamic tribunals in Beledweyne after the Islamists took much of southern Somalia from United States-backed warlords in June, attracting several civilians, but Hagar refused to join them, officials said.
Medical officials said no causalities were reported in hospitals, but shops and other businesses remained closed for fear of full-scale fighting, witnesses said.
The United Nations, the US and other Western countries have warned that any interference by Somalia’s neighbours — arch-foes Ethiopia and Eritrea — might scupper efforts to achieve lasting peace in the country, which has been without a functioning central authority since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
The Somali government, appointed in Kenya in late 2004 after more than two years of peace talks, was seen as the best chance for the lawless country to begin reunifying.
A total of 14 internationally backed initiatives had earlier failed to produce a government. Analysts blamed the failures on unruly warlords, who obtained weapons and other forms of support from neighbouring countries despite a UN arms embargo. — AFP
