RRA says no plans to attack Kismayo

The Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA) has denied that it is planning, along with another faction, to attack the port city of Kismayo, 500 km south of Mogadishu, a senior RRA official told IRIN. Muhammad Ali Adan Qalinle, the governor of Baidoa, 240 km southwest of Mogadishu, described the reports as “baseless and pure fabrication”. Mogadishu-based HornAfrik radio and television, monitored by the BBC, reported 21 July that militia loyal to the RRA and those of General Muhammad Sa’id Hirsi Morgan of the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM) had set off to attack the Middle and Lower Juba regions of southern Somalia. The ultimate target of the attack was said to be Kismayo, according to Hornafrik. Qalinle, who spoke to IRIN on Monday from Baidoa, the headquarters of the RRA, and capital of Bay region, said, “We are not planning any attacks on any region outside our area.” The SPM and the RRA are both members of the opposition grouping the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council, Qalinle said, but denied that the two factions were planning a joint attack on Kismayo. “We are not part of any plan to attack Kismayo,” he insisted. General Morgan and his forces, who gained control of Kismayo in 1993, were forcibly expelled from Kismayo in June 1999 by the Juba Valley Alliance (JVA), which is a grouping of Marehan, Ogadeni and Habar Gedir clans. The JVA on 18 June announced the formation of an administration for Kismayo, a move which was denounced by General Morgan.