Somalia’s pro-government forces on Tuesday closed in on bastions of the insurgent al-Shabaab group, mounting their largest coordinated effort in years to wrest back the country from al-Qaeda-inspired rebels.
The offensive started last week with a major battle in Mogadishu that saw government troops reclaim large swathes of the capital, where the government had long been confined to a few blocks by the sea.
But government troops and their allies have in recent days opened new fronts in the south along the border with Kenya, and in the west, near the border with Ethiopia, two countries reported to actively support the military push.
The Western-backed Somali government’s troops are backed by the 8 000-strong African Union mission in Somalia (Amisom), as well as by the Sufi militia Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa and tribal militias.
Their offensive aims to stretch an al-Shabaab group that has controlled most of southern and central Somalia for three years with a limited number of men but is supported on the ground by jihadi fighters from around the world.
According to witnesses and officials, Ethiopia was trucking in troops to El Bur district, a key al-Shabaab stronghold in central Somalia.
“I saw dozens of trucks belonging to the Ethiopian military heading towards El Bur. It looks like they are joining Ahlu Sunna’s war against al-Shabaab,” said one local resident, Ise Maalim.
‘The war to eliminate the al-Shabaab threat has begun’
A government official in Dolow district, further south, said the all-out offensive that had been promised by three successive prime ministers was finally under way. “The war to eliminate the al-Shabaab threat from the country has begun. We will not stop until we succeed in our goal to cleanse this country of al-Qaeda and its Somali followers,” Abdifatah Ibrahim Gesey said.
The towns of Bulo Hawo and Luq, near the Kenyan border, were recently recaptured from al-Shabaab, who witnesses said were abandoning some of their positions in the south to regroup for the battle over Mogadishu.
Bulo Hawo was conquered after a bloody battle that some security sources in the region said left at least 80 people dead, including women, but Luq was taken over without any fighting.
According to officials and witnesses, pro-government forces have also deployed around Beledweyne, a strategic town near the Ethiopian border that is crucial to the flow of military supplies and trade.
Al-Shabaab fighters were also believed to be bracing for a battle in the city of Baidoa, which is where the transitional federal Parliament was based before the insurgents captured the town and made it one of their strongholds.
“This is the most coordinated offensive I have seen … It could change the political map of Somalia for some time,” said a foreign security expert based in the region.
Sweeping raid
The anti-al-Shabaab drive started with an operation conducted mainly by Amisom’s Ugandan contingent in Mogadishu to smash a network of trenches and tunnels the insurgents had been using to control most of the city.
A few days later, the African force’s Burundian contingent launched a sweeping raid to recapture key thoroughfares and landmarks that had been in al-Shabaab hands for months and sometimes years.
Neither side admitted to major losses, but security sources in Amisom and elsewhere reported that no fewer than 43 Burundians and many more al-Shabaab fighters were killed in what was one of Mogadishu’s bloodiest battles in years.
Tens of thousands of people have died and hundreds of thousands have been displaced over the past few years in Somalia, which is chronically described as the world’s most dangerous country and its worst humanitarian crisis.
The transitional government, whose mandate is set to expire within months, was in battle order and President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on Monday sacked all the country’s top security officials in a bid to improve top-brass coordination.
Meanwhile, al-Shabaab were reported to have launched a massive recruitment drive to contain the government’s advance. — AFP