Telecommunications in Baidoa partially restored

Telecommunications in the town of Baidoa, which had earlier been disconnected from the rest of Somalia, have been partially restored, Baidoa governor Muhammad Ali Adan Qalinle told IRIN on Thursday. The town is controlled by the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), which closed down all telecommunications on 18 February amid reports of military movements in the area. The move followed fighting in neighbouring Gedo Region, pitting forces of the pro-Transitional National Government Juba Valley Alliance against the opposition Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC). Such a move by the RRA was usually a prelude to troop movements, humanitarian sources told IRIN at the time. Only one telecommunications firm - the Baidoa branch of the Olympic Company - has been allowed to reopen, according to Qalinle, the RRA governor. He said the other companies would be allowed "to reopen soon", but declined to explain the delay. The NationLink telecommunications company and Barakaat both have branches in Baidoa. Local sources told IRIN that Olympic restored its services at 2300 local time on Wednesday, adding that the company was restricting international access to "senior RRA officials and officials of international aid agencies - probably on the instructions of the RRA". Ordinary residents were not yet allowed to make calls to foreign countries, the sources added. Qalinle refused to define who was and who was not permitted to make international calls. He also declined to explain why the RRA had shut down telecommunications in the first place, stating: "We had our reasons." Qalinle went on to tell IRIN that some RRA senior officials had left for Ethiopia on Wednesday. "The RRA's secretary-general and its secretary for defence left for Ethiopia yesterday [Wednesday] to attend a meeting of the SRRC," he said. Other sources in Baidoa told IRIN that two SRRC senior officials - General Muhammad Sa'id Hirsi Morgan and Abdullahi Shaykh Isma'il - had also departed for Addis Ababa.