Key towns fall in march to Kismayu

African Union troops have surrounded Kismayu ahead of a major offensive to liberate the last remaining Al-Shabaab stronghold in southern Somalia.

The forces have recently captured a number of key towns around the port city from the Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

And by Sunday, the AU troops were advancing on Birta Dheer, a strategic Al-Shabaab outpost 60 kilometres west of Kismayu.

Reports from Jubaland said that the Amisom troops and their allies — Somali National Army and Ras Kamboni Brigade — have intensified attacks against Al-Shabaab fighters at Birta Dheer.

Birta Dheer, a heavily fortified outpost, has been under the control of Al-Shabaab for the past three years. The allied forces were reportedly advancing from Bibi, which they captured on Friday. (READ: Kenyan troops seize town in march to Kismayu)

On Sunday, Department of Defence spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir, said the Somali government forces and KDF troops were in the afternoon engaged in a fierce battle with Al-Shabaab fighters for control of Jana Abdallah town, also in southern Somalia.

Residents in Juba region said the allied forces had intensified aerial and ground attacks on suspected Al-Shabaab bases forcing the militants to flee to neighbouring towns.

Mr Abdinaser Seraar, the spokesman of Ras Kamboni Brigade, a clan-based paramilitary group allied to the Somali government, said Kismayu was now within their sights.

“We are aiming to reach positions close to Kismayu any time and this will ease our plan to capture the town this week,” Mr Senaar said. However, the International Crisis Group warned that Al-Shabaab was not yet down-and-out.

The ICG says last Monday’s suicide bomb attack at the Jazeera Hotel in Mogadishu, where Somalia’s new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, was meeting a Kenyan delegation showed that Al-Shabaab would put up resistance.

According to Mr E.J. Hogendoorn, Horn of Africa project director at ICG, Al-Shabaab has already made plans to start a guerrilla campaign and reorganise its forces.

“To some degree, this is a replay of 2006 when Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia in an effort to help the then TFG (Transitional Government), and Al-Shabaab was actually able to launch a very effective and bloody guerrilla campaign that sapped the will of Ethiopia to stay there,” he said during an interview with Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

Security experts said Amisom troops had delayed the capture of Kismayu to give time to a political process on how the port city would be governed after its capture.

But KDF spokesman Col Cyrus Oguna said the capture of the port city was not dependent on a political process. “Military operations are not tied to political processes,” Col Oguna said.

Military sources said the Ugandan and Burundian contingents were expected to capture the town of  Jawhar to completely pacify Sector I.

The sources said the Ugandan and Burundian contingents are moving in more ground troops towards Kismayu although their capacity to move faster has been hampered by the lack of an air wing, after their helicopters crashed in Kenya in August.

Two weeks ago, Amisom commanders attended a series of meetings in Nairobi before flying back to Somalia to prepare for the capture of Kismayu. British experts are said to have facilitated the meetings.

And speaking in Nairobi on Sunday, Chief of Defence Forces Julius Karangi said that the incursion into Somalia should have started much earlier.

“It’s a price we have to pay now,” he said, adding: “We must reclaim our country. You must not interfere with the peace in Kenya especially if you are a foreigner.”