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Pirates' haven seized
13/08/2006 21:16 - (SA)
Mogadishu - Somalia's dominant Islamic militia on Sunday seized control of a central township near the coastline that has been a base of piracy and dozens of hijackings of ships in the Indian Ocean, officials and residents said.
"The Islamic courts are in full control of Haradere and we were welcomed by its inhabitants, who were forcefully ruled by pirates," Sheikh Said Ali, an Islamic courts official, told AFP of the township that lies about 300km north of Mogadishu.
"The era of banditry and piracy is over. People can now live peacefully and get money by fishing and doing other businesses, but not piracy. "The pirates have mistreated people in the territorial waters of Somalia and damaged our credibility," he added.
Residents said the pirates - calling themselves the Defenders of Somali Territorial Waters and loyal to regional warlord Abdi Mohamed Afweyne - fled before the Islamic militiamen and battlewagons - pickup trucks mounted with machineguns - arrived at the dusty outpost in the country's Mudug region.
Last month, the Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the head of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) which controls the capital and much of southern Somalia, said he would forcefully stop all acts of piracy in Somalia.
Somalia has had no functioning central administration since the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre and pirates have increasingly taken advantage of the lack of authority to prey along its 3 700km-long coast.
Since mid-March 2005, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has reported at least 41 hijackings and attempted seizures of vessels along the Somali coastline.
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