Officials of Jubaland State say they have, cleared Kismayu of Mogadishu-backed militia.<\/p>\n
The army chief confirmed this just days after the military and militia clash left dozens dead.<\/p>\n
Although Kenya Defence Forces ( KDF) and other Amisom troops fighting Al Shabaab entered Kismayu on October 1, last year, the city remained dangerous.<\/p>\n
Warlords maintained control of several pockets in the city; militia killed civilians and erected illegal checkpoints.<\/p>\n
Now, the Jubaland administration says it has fully secured the port city. This follows the routing of two warlords \u2013 Barre Aadan Shire (Hiiraale) and Iftiin Xasan (Baasto) \u2013 in a three-day gun battle that ended last Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cKismayu\u2026 is free of hostile gunmen and warlords,\u201d General Ismail Sahardid, the army chief, told this reporter on the telephone from Kismayu. \u201cIt is absolutely safe for the first time since we arrived here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Differences<\/p>\n
However, this development has kicked up a diplomatic storm between Nairobi and Mogadishu, over what to do with the southern border regions.<\/p>\n
Somalia last weekend called on KDF to vacate Kismayu over claims they were supporting one of the warring parties. <\/p>\n
KDF who are serving under the Amisom, denied the allegations. This has not stopped agitation by Hiiraale and others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will return to Kismayu,\u201d he told radio stations in Mogadishu. \u201cThe war is between us and Kenya.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sensationally talked of \u201creturning the sovereignty\u201d of Somalia. Both Hiiraale and Abbas Ibrahim Gurey, a commander in the Somali National Forces, whose brief arrest by the KDF irked Mogadishu, said they would fight Kenyan forces, with Hiiraale \u201cswearing to God\u201d that his men will defeat Kenya and kill those captured \u201con the spot\u201d.<\/p>\n
NMG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Officials of Jubaland State say they have, cleared Kismayu of Mogadishu-backed militia. The army chief confirmed this just days after the military and militia clash left dozens dead. Although Kenya Defence Forces ( KDF) and other Amisom troops fighting Al Shabaab entered Kismayu on October 1, last year, the city remained dangerous. Warlords maintained control […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-8925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8925"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=8925"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=8925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}