Fighters loyal to Somalia’s weak government and powerful Islamist movement girded for battle on Wednesday outside the government’s temporary seat in Baidoa, as tensions between the rivals soared.
Amid conflicting statements from Islamist officials about their intention to attack Baidoa, government troops, allegedly assisted by Ethiopia soldiers, dug trenches around the town, preparing for a feared advance, witnesses said.
With Islamist forces massing near Burhakaba, a town about 50km east of Baidoa briefly occupied at the weekend by the government but re-taken on Monday by the Islamists, the government erected defences, they said.
“There are about 30 armoured cars in the Baidoa area with about 500 Ethiopian troops; I saw them,” said Baidoa resident Ahmed Mohamed Burane. “They are at the defence line and digging trenches.”
A senior government official confirmed that trenches were being dug and defences erected but said they were well away from Baidoa and denied that any Ethiopian troops were involved.
“The trenches are in Modomode village,” the official said, referring to a position about 10km west of Burhakaba. “But there are no trenches yet in Baidoa.”
“The Islamists are unpredictable as they have no proper command structure,” the government official told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity in Baidoa. “We have to expect that anything can happen.”
In Burhakaba, Islamists began to block fuel shipments from the port of Mogadishu to Baidoa in a move that could cripple the town, officials and witnesses said.
“We are searching all vehicles going to Baidoa for military items, including fuel, that could be used to fight us,” said Ahmed Idris, an Islamist leader in the town on the road between the capital and the government seat.
“It is not an embargo, it is a matter of security,” he said.
Abdullahi Nur Daud, an oil transporter, said three of his vehicles had been stopped in Burhakaba. “There is no official decree but the Islamists will not allow us to take fuel to Baidoa, even one barrel of 200 litres,” he said.
There was apparent confusion in the Islamist ranks as a top commander said he would soon attack Baidoa while the movement’s supreme leader ruled out the possibility.
The commander, Sheikh Hasan Abdullahi Turki, said he would seize Baidoa in a bid to extend sharia law throughout Somalia, including the north-east enclave of Puntland and the self-declared state of Somaliland in the north-west.
“We are ready to attack Baidoa, Puntland as well as Somaliland,” he said in an interview with Mogadishu’s Radio HornAfrik. “We want to capture Baidoa, we want to see those in Baidoa flee with their belongings.”
But Turki’s comments were quickly contradicted by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, chief of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia.
“The Islamic courts will not attack Baidoa if the government does not attack us first,” he said. “We have no plan in place to invade Baidoa.”
Aweys, a hard-line cleric designated a “terrorist” by the United States for alleged al-Qaeda ties that he denies, said the Islamists would abide by accords reached with the government in Arab League-mediated talks in Sudan.
“We are respecting the agreements signed with the government in Khartoum,” he said, reiterating that the Islamists would attend a planned third round of peace talks set for October 30 but jeopardised by the fresh tension.
“We are ready to hold more talks and we will not violate the truce,” Aweys told Shabelle Radio in Mogadishu, which the Islamists seized from warlords and June and have since used as a base to take most of south and central Somalia.
On Monday, Aweys announced a “jihad” against Ethiopia. The next day the Islamists claimed to have captured an Ethiopian officer in fighting north of the Muslim-held southern port of Kismayo.
Ethiopia and the Somali government have repeatedly denied eyewitness accounts of Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia, although Addis Ababa has said several times it has sent trainers and advisers.
Mainly Christian Ethiopia has vowed to protect itself and the Somali government from the “jihadists,” who said the call for holy war had led to a surge in more than 3Â 000 recruits. — AFP