Islamists controlling much of southern Somalia said on Wednesday that at least 100 government soldiers had defected to their side, dealing a new blow to the weak transitional administration.
The troops, along with seven machine-gun mounted pick-ups known as ”battlewagons” or ”technicals”, crossed into Islamist territory overnight from near the temporary government seat of Baidoa, officials said.
”The militiamen communicated with al-Bayan Islamic court in Mogadishu and said they wanted to join our holy effort to bring peace to the Somali people,” said court chairperson Mohamed Ali Bilal.
”They are ideologically uncomfortable with the government and also claim to have been mistreated,” he told Agence France-Presse by phone from Burhakba, about 175km west of Mogadishu, where the defectors arrived early on Wednesday.
Government officials in Baidoa, about 250km west of the capital, confirmed that a group of disgruntled soldiers had deserted but put their number at fewer than 50.
The defections come as tensions rose between the largely powerless government and the Islamists who seized Mogadishu from warlords in June after months of fierce fighting and have rapidly expanded their territory.
The rise of the Islamists threatens the already limited authority of the internationally backed government, which many had hoped could end 16 years of anarchy in the lawless Horn of Africa nation of about 10-million people.
Planned Arab League-mediated talks this week in Sudan to calm the situation were delayed again on Tuesday as the Islamists renewed demands for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops allegedly in Somalia to protect the government.
But both the Somali government and Addis Ababa have denied Ethiopian soldiers are in Somalia despite numerous witness accounts of uniformed troops from Ethiopia deploying in and around Baidoa.
Somalia has been without a functioning central authority since the 1991 ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre plunged the country into chaos with rival warlords competing for territory.
The Islamists have moved to fill the power vacuum, raising concerns of a Taliban-style takeover of Somalia and challenging the Baidoa-based government, the latest of 14 internationally backed attempts to restore stability. — AFP
