A radical Somali Islamist faction linked to al-Qaeda, which took control of the southern port city of Kismayo, has angered moderate Islamists who accused them on Monday of short-changing local leaders.
A commander of the moderate Somali Islamic Courts Union (ICU) rejected a new administration set up by the hard-line al-Shabaab, less than a month after the groups jointly drove out a pro-government militia after battles that left scores dead.
Sheikh Ibrahim Shukri said al-Shabaab had appointed ”unacceptable” leaders for Kismayo, 500km south of the capital, Mogadishu, nearly three weeks after they seized the port town.
”Al-Shabaab appointed its people to top posts without inviting other local people and the ICU that played a military role in taking over Kismayo,” Shukri said by phone.
Talks to name a broad administration had been under way, but were ”hijacked by elements who met in a small room and came up with an unacceptable list”, he added.
Elders said the new leadership, appointed over the weekend, was illegitimate.
”The new administration is illegitimate and will not be recognised by the people of this region. Al-Shabaab disrespected people’s aspirations to have their own civic leaders,” said one elder, Ahmed Moalim Hassan.
The al-Shabaab and the ICU wrested back control of Kismayo on August 22 after three days of battles with a local militia, and more than a year after they were driven out by Ethiopian forces backing the Somali government.
Sheikh Hassan Yakub, the spokesperson for al-Shabaab, said: ”The new Mujahideen administration will help the people of Kismayo under the Sharia law.”
The ICU is a member of the Alliance for Reliberation of Somalia (ARS) — an umbrella Somali opposition group — that signed a truce with the government at United Nations-mediated peace talks in Djibouti on June 9. Al-Shabaab rejected the deal.
Washington has blacklisted al-Shabaab for its suspected ties with al-Qaeda. — AFP
