Somali government troops, backed by Ethiopia, said on Wednesday that they had so far failed to capture any Islamist leaders who have been running for two days since abandoning their last remaining stronghold.
In Kenya, authorities deported hundreds of Somali refugees who had crossed into the country as Nairobi heightened its frontier security, a day after Ethiopian helicopters bombed Kenyan positions by mistake.
Routed from their positions by overwhelming Ethiopian forces and government troops after nearly two weeks of fighting, the Somali Islamists and foreign fighters fled their last bastion, the key southern port town of Kismayo, on Monday, but had eluded their pursuers.
”We have caught none … but we are still pursuing them,” Information Minister Ali Jama told the media.
Jama speculated that the Islamists, who are suspected of ties with al-Qaeda, may be in a dense forest along the Kenya-Somalia border, but could not give their exact location.
”We are yet to pin-point where they are, but we believe they are hiding in the border forest,” he said.
Government spokesperson Abdirahman Dinari said there was no amnesty offer for the Islamist leadership accused of ties with al-Qaeda and other extremist groups.
”We will not offer amnesty for the Islamists leadership … they are accused of terrorism and that is an international crime,” Dinari said.
Meanwhile, an international panel on Somalia was due to meet in Berlin to discuss how Europe could help in the restoration of peace in the war-torn country.
Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi was trying to get clans in the capital, Mogadishu, to hand in their weapons on Wednesday, the second day of a 72-hour-ultimatum for a voluntary surrender of arms, Dinari said.
Authorities stood by their threat of forceful disarmament after the deadline lapses on Thursday, after no weapons were handed in on Tuesday.
”The prime minister is making clear to them that disarmament is good for the country,” Dinari explained.
On Tuesday, the Somali government said it had full control of territories wrested from Islamists with Ethiopia’s military help after nearly two weeks of artillery duels that convulsed the Horn of Africa nation.
Kenya, which is pressing the government and the Islamists to resume peace talks, has intensified aerial and ground patrols along the border to stop the Islamists from crossing over.
Late on Tuesday, an Islamist gunman attacked an Ethiopian camp in the southern Somalia town of Jilib, about 100km north of Kismayo, seen as a first incident of a guerrilla campaign the Islamists have threatened.
Kenyan officials said four Ethiopian helicopters pursuing the Islamists missed their target and bombed a Kenyan border post on Tuesday. There were no casualties, but the incident highlighted the intensity of the pursuit.
Meanwhile, Kenyan authorities started deporting Somali refugees who had fled into the country as Nairobi tightened its frontier security, officials said.
”We have deported about 400 refugees. We put them on lorries and sent them back home,” a police commander said.
About 350 were forcefully evicted from Liboi registration centres while 40 were intercepted while trying to sneak into the country, officials said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Tuesday said about 4 000 Somalis were stranded in the Somali town of Dhobley, waiting to cross into the country.
”We are certainly disturbed by reports we are getting that people seeking asylum are being sent back because this amounts to contravention of the international humanitarian law,” said Millicent Mutuli, the spokesperson for the UN refugee agency.
Somalia disintegrated into lawlessness after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. It was carved up among clan warlords, some of whom now back the government.
Analysts have warned that the fall of the Islamists, who ousted warlords from Mogadishu in June, does not mark the end of the woes that have blighted the nation of 10-million. — AFP
