Freed Somalia Towns Feel Besieged

HUDUR, Somalia—Women slip into this southern town in the middle of the night with sacks of rice for sale—a lifeline for residents and a move that demonstrates the continued threat from surrounding Islamist militants.

Hudur is one of a number of towns that African Union forces have liberated from al-Shabaab this year only to become isolated government outposts, leaving residents stranded and rebels in control of commercial lifelines. The troops freed Hudur, a town of some 20,000 about 60 miles from the Ethiopian border, from al-Shabaab militants in March. They were followed by swarms of exiled residents eager to go home.

 The returnees and a new district commissioner showed how the Somali government was seeking to establish control of the country beyond the fortified capital city of Mogadishu. But Hudur and many other liberated urban centers now struggle to survive because African peacekeepers—backed by the U.S. and other Western governments—have yet to secure the areas around them. That raises questions about the pace of AU operations.

“Liberating these areas is not a solution necessarily if the entry points and exit points are still blocked,” said Richard Downie, deputy director of the Africa program for Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.

 “It’s very difficult to hold those areas and provide continued access.” If the AU troops and the Somali army aren’t able to widen control of rural areas, those towns could easily fall again. These same forces seized control of Hudur in 2012, only to relinquish it to al-Shabaab a year later, forcing government sympathizers to flee. The risk is that the government will never establish full control, mirroring the situation in the capital, where militants have been pushed out, but have since launched deadly attacks, including one on the presidential palace in July.

  “If you’re not careful, Mogadishu is actually the future of the rest of Somalia,” said Stig Hansen, author of “Al-Shabaab in Somalia.” “You have the government in control in the daytime but Shabaab at night.” The situation in Hudur illustrates the gamble of multiple AU offensives to turn the tide in a two-decade-long civil war in Somalia. ENLARGE . There have been clear signs of progress, including the democratic election of a president in 2012 and the U.S. strike this year that killed top al-Shabaab commanders. Since the beginning of the year, AU troops have retaken about 20 towns from militants, disrupting al-Shabaab’s supply lines.

On Sunday, Kenya’s deputy president, William Ruto, said his country’s security forces had killed more than 100 militants and destroyed their camp in Somalia, a day after al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the ambush of a Nairobi-bound bus that left 28 people dead, Reuters reported. But military control remains tenuous, and people who make it to freed towns live in fear. “You liberate, then you consolidate,” said Eloi Yao, a spokesman for the AU force in Somalia. The Somali army commander for Bakol region, of which Hudur is the capital, said checkpoints tightly control who comes in and out of the town.

Anyone who isn’t from Hudur is instructed to call someone in town to vouch for them. Hudur hasn’t had a militant attack since it was retaken, said Col. Abdirahman Mohammed Osman. “If tonight you stay in Hudur, you will sleep safe,” he said.