Baidoa tense after reported RRA split

The town of Baidoa, 240 km southwest of Mogadishu, is reported to be tense, local sources told IRIN. Tension follows a reported split within the executive committee of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA). The split affecting the RRA, which controls much of Bay and Bakol regions in south-central Somalia, was over whether the RRA should support the attempt by General Muhammad Sa’id Hirsi Morgan of the Somali Patriotic Front to attack and recapture Kismayo, sources in Baidoa told IRIN. “The split is between those who want to support General Morgan and those who oppose this,” they said. In recent days, there have been numerous local media reports of an impending attack on Kismayo, 500 km south of Mogadishu, by Morgan’s forces. Morgan was expelled from Kismayo in June 1999 by an alliance of Marehan, Ogadeni and Habar Gedir militia, which recently set up an administration in the town. An informed source told IRIN that Colonel Hasan Muhmmad Nur Shatigadud had promised Morgan the support of the RRA without consulting the executive committee. Over 20 members of the 37-member committee were reportedly opposed to the idea, the source said. The committee had been deliberating the issue since last week, it added. “The RRA has no business going to Kismayo, or supporting Morgan,” it said. Morgan is currently in Dhinsoor, some 110 km southwest of Baidoa, awaiting RRA reinforcements. The executive committee meeting would continue until the issue of support for Morgan and leadership questions were dealt with, local sources told IRIN. Meanwhile, some executive members were said to be using the split to challenge Shatigadud’s leadership of the RRA.