RIVAL Islamist insurgents are squaring up for a fight over Somalia's strategic port of Kismayu after hardline al Shabaab rebels unilaterally named a new administration to run the area.
Animosity has been growing between al Shabaab, which the United States says is al-Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state, and another rebel militia, Hizbul Islam.
The growing rift between the south's two main rebel groups – which both
oppose the fragile United Nations-backed government – only points to more violence in the country, where over 18,000 civilians have been killed since the start of 2007.
Both groups want to control Kismayu, which is a lucrative source of taxes and other income, and until this week they controlled the port in an uneasy alliance. Then on Wednesday, al Shabaab named its own local governing council, excluding all its Hizbul Islam rivals.
Residents say both sides are rushing in reinforcements in anticipation of battle, and yesterday a senior Hizbul Islam leader said it would not recognise the new authority. "The men who call themselves al Shabaab have formed an administration with disregard to the other mujahideen," said Sheikh Hassan Turki, Hizbul's deputy leader and the commander of southern Somalia's Ras Kamboni militant group.
"There should be mediation before there is bloodshed … they broke a promise about forming the town's administration."
Leaflets denouncing al Shabaab, widely thought to have been printed by the Kamboni group, have been circulating in Kismayu in recent weeks, raising fears of a confrontation.
Security experts say Somalia is a haven for militants, including foreign jihadists. On Wednesday, the European Union's aid chief warned it risked becoming "the new Afghanistan" unless western donors helped its government stop al-Qaeda gaining a foothold in the region.
