Africa Union forces regained control of southern Somalia’s third-largest port of Marka, just a day after apparently relinquishing it to al Shabaab.
On Friday, heavily armed militants from the al Qaeda-allied terror group occupied the port city after Africa Union Mission to Somalia troops vacated it in what the mission described as a “re-adjust[ment] … for tactical purposes”.
Somalia government forces had left the city a day earlier, fearing an attack from the militants who have been battling to unseat the government in Mogadishu and to impose an extreme version of Islamic law on the country.
"We now control
Marka
police station and the entire town. AMISOM left the town early this morning," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's spokesman for military operations, told Reuters on Friday.
Residents said the militant group raised its flags inside the town, which is situated 100 kilometers (60 miles)southwest of Mogadishu, and started to preach to residents using loudspeakers.
Local police officer Hussein Elmi said they had moved out of the town to the outskirts without giving a reason for the move.
Kenyan troops, part of an African Union (AU) force in Somalia (AMISOM), took heavy losses when on their camp near the Kenyan border on Jan. 15, prompting the Kenyan and Somali forces to abandon some positions.