It is ” a historic victory “, welcomed the Somali Prime Minister, Hamza Abdi Barre, announcing on Monday January 16 the resumption of the “strategic” port of Harardhere, which the Islamist extremists of Al-Shabaab had held since 2010. “2023 will be the year of freedom and the eradication of Al-Shabaab, and our entire country will be liberated”he added in a press release.
Harardhere is 500 kilometers north of Mogadishu, the capital. According to Hussein Ahmed, the minister of posts, present on the front, the jihadists left the city before the arrival of government forces, which took it back without a fight. The village of Galcad, located, like Harardhere, in the state of Galmudug, was also taken over on Monday in the same circumstances, we learned from sources close to the security services.
A “total war”
The Al-Shabaab, who took up arms in 2007, were driven out of the country’s main cities in 2011 and 2012, but they remain firmly established in large rural areas. President Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud, who returned to power in May 2022, promised to deliver them a “total war” with the support of local militias who revolted against them.
The offensive, supported by the force of the African Union in Somalia (Atmis) and the American air force, made it possible to reconquer vast stretches of the center of the country, but the Chabab, who claim to be Al Qaeda, remain in able to carry out very deadly attacks, such as those which killed nineteen people in Mahas (center), at the beginning of January. On October 29, in Mogadishu, two car bombs also claimed the lives of 121 people, an unprecedented toll in this country in the Horn of Africa, also affected by a historic drought.