Somali troops seize key city, renegade leader quits

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MOGADISHU — Somali federal troops Monday wrested control of the key city of Baidoa after clashes with forces loyal to the head of the region, whose mandate Mogadishu says expired four years ago.

Deeply fractured Somalia's central government accuses the South West State president, Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen, of having illegally extended his rule, which in theory expired in 2022.

The fighting comes after Laftagareen opposed a reform of the Somali constitution, adopted in early March, which extends the presidential term from four to five years and introduces the election of Somali MPs and senators by direct universal suffrage instead of the current indirect, clan-based system.

Laftagareen, whose whereabouts are unknown, said on Facebook after the clashes that he had stepped down as president of South West State.

The fighting broke out about six kilometres (under four miles) from the city of several hundred thousand inhabitants, and local forces fled, Hassan Mohamed, a commander of the Somali National Army, told AFP.

"We have now entered the town from the side of the animal market, and very soon, we are planning to clear the rest of the city of the deposed regime loyalists," he told AFP earlier.

"Their remnants are still in some parts of the town, but we will force them to retreat or surrender," he added.

Residents contacted by AFP confirmed that Somali army soldiers had entered the city, accompanied by fighters from a militia opposed to the local authorities.

"There was no fighting inside Baidoa so far, the opposition forces and the members of the national army have managed to enter the town after brief fighting in the suburbs of the town," Mahdi Ali, a resident, said by phone.

A few hours before pro-government forces entered Baidoa, an official from the South West State, where Baidoa is located, had insisted that local authorities and forces would repel any attack.

"Those who have invaded the people of the South West State will never succeed. They will be defeated," said Ugaas Hassan, a spokesman for the state administration.

South West State security minister Mohamed Isak Osman later told a press conference late Monday: "We inform the Somali public that responsibility for security in Baidoa, the interim administrative capital of the South West State administration, has now been fully assumed by the Federal Government of Somalia.

"Accordingly, we urge South West State security forces to refrain from any confrontation with federal troops."

Witnesses said the members of the national armed forces and local forces took full control of Baidoa.

"The security forces of the former administration withdrew from all their positions in the town, and the Somali federal government troops, moving in military vehicles, took control of the vacated areas," Mohamed Sheik, a resident, said.

'Situation has stabilised'

Muhidin Derow, another local, added: "The situation has stabilised with pro-federal government forces now in control of all key areas.

"Residents have taken to the streets to welcome them, expressing relief that prolonged urban fighting was avoided."

Somalia's federal government later said it "reiterates to the Somali people at large, and especially to the residents of the South West Sate, its commitment to safeguarding stability, the well-being of the people and their property, and to ensuring that there will be no acts of persecution or retaliation".

On Sunday, several security sources said Mogadishu had sent between 600 and 800 soldiers as reinforcements to retake Baidoa, supported by hundreds of local militiamen.