Somalia’s weak government on Monday banned vehicles travelling from Islamist-held Mogadishu to its seat in the provincial town of Baidoa, after two suicide car bombings there blamed on the Islamists.
Citing fears of more such attacks as the two sides and government ally Ethiopia gird for all-out war, government officials said the ban was necessary to protect the town and its residents following the second bombing on Thursday.
”You know what happened — we had suicide bombings and the cars used were believed to be from Mogadishu and that is why we have taken this decision,” said Baidoa district commissioner Ahmed Maddey Issak.
”When the decision takes effect tomorrow [Tuesday], no cars from Mogadishu will be allowed to enter Baidoa,” he told the media from the town about 250km north-west of Mogadishu.
”We consider cars from the capital to be dangerous because terrorists have used them two times before and I think taking such a decision is the only solution to boost our security,” Issak said.
It was not immediately clear exactly how authorities would enforce the ban, although there is only one main road linking Mogadishu to Baidoa and it is peppered with checkpoints manned by both government and Islamist fighters.
The government blames the Islamists, who it accuses of al-Qaeda ties, for both the November 30 bombing that killed nine people, and a September 18 failed attempt to assassinate Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed that killed 11.
The powerful Islamist movement has denied responsibility.
Senior Islamist officials decried the ban as an Ethiopian-imposed punishment on the impoverished residents of Baidoa, the only main town held by the government, who will be effectively isolated from the rest of the country.
”We condemn this action,” said Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal Ibrahim, chairperson of the Islamic courts in Bay region where Baidoa is located. ”It is barbaric and economic sabotage.
”The decision has been made by Ethiopians and these people [government] were only instructed to implement it,” he said. ”The whole idea of the ban is to suppress the poor people of the Bay and Bakol region.”
Frequent travellers on the Mogadishu-Baidoa road also bristled with anger and accused the government of adopting draconian policies.
”We are not terrorists attacking people; we are just doing business and this ban is really bad for us,” said van operator Abdullahi Hussein Yantarow.
”I have been doing this business for five years and I have never seen such a ban affecting ordinary cars working between Mogadishu and Baidoa,” he said.
The travel ban comes as Islamist and Ethiopian-backed government forces gird for battle despite fresh efforts to avert conflict that analysts say could engulf the entire Horn of Africa region.
Witnesses said the rival sides were facing off near the town of Dinsoor, about 110km south of Baidoa, which was seized by the Islamists without a fight over the weekend.
Government troops were sent to the area after the Islamist takeover on Saturday but details of the situation there on Monday were not immediately available.
Last week, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi won parliamentary approval to defend his country from the Islamists, who have declared holy war on Ethiopian forces in Somalia protecting the transitional administration.
Addis Ababa denies deploying thousands of troops across the border but acknowledges sending military advisers and trainers to assist the Somali government.
Mainly Christian Ethiopia is concerned about the rise on its border of the Islamists, who seized Mogadishu in June and now control most of southern and central Somalia.
With a large ethnic Somali population, Ethiopia fears radicalisation of its sizable Muslim minority by the Islamists. — AFP
