International warships bar ships from insurgent-controlled port
May 29, 2009 (MOGADISHU) – International warships blocked a cargo ship preventing it from entering an insurgent held port in Kismayu in an attempt to stop supplies the Islamist militants who control the region.
Kismayu, the third largest town in Somalia is situated 528 km southwest of Mogadishu, near the mouth of the Jubba River, where that river flows into the Indian Ocean.
“I’m confirming to you that the international warships prevented a commercial ship from docking in Kismayu,” stated the Ports and Sea Transport Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Habasade.
He further said the measure aims at stopping supplies reaching the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents who want to overthrow the UN backed government headed by a moderate Somali Islamist.
Several countries initially deployed warships in the Red sea, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean in order to fight the flourishing piracy that threatens the safety of the international trade.
The minister told Reuters they warned Somali traders against chartering ships to the opposition groups’ strongholds because they have sanctions imposed on them.
The ship had delivered goods to the capital Mogadishu before heading south to Kismayu, the minister said. Its nationality and details of its cargo were not known.
Al Shebab, which Western security services say is a proxy for al Qaeda, has been fighting the Somali government since early 2007 in a rebellion that has killed nearly 18,000 civilians and driven more than 1 million from their homes.
In Kismayu the Somali insurgent on Friday imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew after a rare attack near one of its bases in the southern port city it has held since mid-2008.
Two civilians were injured when a hand-grenade was hurled towards the base on Thursday night, locals said, in the latest violence in the Horn of Africa nation which has suffered 18 years of near-continuous civil conflict.
(ST)