Reuters/Mogadishu

Somalia’s Al Shabaab Islamists said yesterday they had seized control of a southern town from the rival Hizbul Islam insurgents after clashes that killed at least 12 fighters.

Al Shabaab controls much of southern Somalia and parts of the capital Mogadishu. The group is fighting government troops and African Union peacekeepers to impose its own version of Shariah, or Muslim law, throughout Somalia.

Witnesses said hundreds of the group’s fighters marched into Afmadow town in the lower Jubba region yesterday after heavy fighting that started the previous day.

“We are now in the town. We have killed more than 12 of those that fought us and captured others,” al Shabaab commander Mohamed Ali Shuqul said by telephone from Afmadow, which is close to the border with Kenya.

Residents said they saw dead bodies on the streets as they fled the tense town.

The two rebel groups were former allies but broke ranks over who should control the lucrative southern port of Kismayu.

“Al Shabaab’s strategy is to stop anyone who can have an influence on the people in the areas it controls. This fighting is mainly about who should control resources and Kismayu port,” said Ahmed Ali Noor, a Mogadishu-based political analyst.

Some of Afmadow’s inhabitants took the opportunity to go on the rampage, storming buildings belonging to two aid agencies.

“Many people forced entry into the buildings and looted some equipment belonging to Horn Relief and another NGO,” Afmadow resident Abdi Nor Afrah said.

A Hizbul Islam commander, Mohamed Husein, said that discord in his group allowed its rival to take over Afmadow.

“After we disagreed and left the town, Al Shabaab got the chance to capture Afmadow,” he said.

Around 19,000 Somalis have been killed in fighting since the start of 2007 and while some residents credit the insurgents with restoring a semblance of order in some areas, al Shabaab’s strict rules have alienated many Somalis who are traditionally moderate Muslims.

Violence onshore has extended to lawlessness at sea where pirate gangs have received millions of dollars in ransoms for ships that they hijacked. They are holding some 13 ships and over 200 crew.

Greek maritime authorities yesterday denied that a Greek cargo ship had been seized off Yemen, saying the vessel was attacked by pirates but escaped. 

Earlier, a Kenyan maritime watchdog reported that the Panama-flagged Red Sea Spirit had been hijacked late Thursday in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen. But Greek officials said they had spoken to the company which manages the ship, Sekur Holding Inc., and were told it had managed to outrun its attackers.

They also said the attack did not happen on Thursday, but on Monday.  “The cargo ship was attacked on (Monday) November 16 by two speedboats but, by manoeuvring, escaped from the pirates,” the authorities said.

It was continuing its journey yesterday with 22 Philippine sailors aboard, maritime authorities said.  The ship had left the Gulf of Aden en route to Karachi in Pakistan with a cargo of cement, they said. Attacks in waters north of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden have become rarer since foreign navies started patrols in the area last year.

Pirate groups have since shifted their focus to the wider Indian Ocean, a huge area much more difficult to patrol, and now venture as far as the Seychelles and beyond.

There was a pause in hijackings during monsoon rains, but the sea gangs have stepped up attacks in the past two months, extending their range to as far as the Seychelles, to evade the naval vessels.

Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year, heading to and from the Suez Canal.

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