Kenya Military Says It Cuts Off Revenue Sources for Al-Shabaab
February 11, 2012, 6:50 AM ESTBy Johnstone Ole Turana
Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) --Kenya’s military said it cut off key al-Shabaab revenue sources, curbing their financial firepower and forcing them to seek assistance from al-Qaeda.
“We have taken key areas that account for 75 percent of al-Shabaab revenue,” Colonel Cyrus Oguna, a spokesman for the Kenya Defense Forces, told reporters in Nairobi today.
The military forces that entered Somalia in mid-October have captured areas including Ras Kamboni, Bulgabo, Tabda, Girma, Hosingo, Elare and Badhadhe, which were providing the bulk of financial support for the Islamic militants.
“These areas we have captured have crippled their finances and this has forced them to seek assistance from al-Qaeda,” Oguna said. “The Kismayu port remains the current source of revenue and we intend to take it over soon.”
The Kenya forces together with soldiers from the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia ambushed Elare on Feb. 7 and killed Mohamed Asmaya, who was believed to be a key financier of the militants. Four Somali soldiers were killed in the fighting.
Fourteen soldiers of the Kenya Defense Forces have been killed, while 24 have been injured and one is missing, Oguna said.
Information about the fighting cannot be independently verified and the two sides’ version of events generally differs. The Horn of African nation also hosts more than 10,000 African Union troops from Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti working alongside government troops and Ethiopian soldiers who separately entered Somalia in pursuit of al-Shabaab in December.
Al-Shabaab has been battling Somalia’s western-backed government led by President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed for five years and controls most of the southern and central regions.
Somalia has had no effective central government since the downfall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre two decades ago.
The Somalia peace conference will be held on Feb. 23 in London, Antony Safari, an official of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters today Nairobi.
--Editors: Dan Liefgreen, Alex Devine
To contact the reporters on this story: Johnstone Ole Turana in Nairobi at jturana@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net
