Thursday, September 25, 2008
The arrival of the vessel from Mombasa, with 17,000 bags of sugar, is an indication of how the Islamist insurgents may use Kismayu as a trade corridor and source of supplies.
Spearheaded by the al Shabaab militant group, the Islamists have re-taken large swathes of southern Somalia this year, challenging a Mogadishu-based government and its Ethiopian military backers.
"The first ship has docked at the port since al Shabaab seized Kismayu," Sheikh Hassan Libaah, chairman of Kismayu traders, confirmed to Reuters.
During the Islamists' six-month rule of southern Somalia in 2006, they won plaudits for restoring trade and security, although many were unhappy with their strict application of sharia law on the population.
Allied Somali-Ethiopian troops ousted the Islamists at the end of 2006, sparking an Iraq-style insurgency. (Reporting by Sahra Ahmed; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Wangui Kanina)
Source: Reuters, Sept 25, 2008