MOGADISHU: Islamists on Sunday seized Somalia’s port town and major pirate hub of Harardhere, residents said, raising concerns for three international ships and 60 crew held there.
Militants from the Hezb Al-Islam group had been advancing on Harardhere, 500-km north of the capital Mogadishu, over the past few weeks and entered without a fight after the pirates fled.
“The pirates emptied the town this morning after getting the information that Islamist fighters were about to enter town. I saw heavily armed militants enter the town on around 10 armed vehicles,” Abdulkadir Hasan, an elder in Harardhere, told AFP by phone.
“There was not fighting because the Islamists did not encounter any resistance,” he said. Harardhere is one of the major pirate hubs in Somalia. “The three vessels held there are in danger,” Andrew Mwangura, the head of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told AFP. One is the MV Rak Afrikana, a Seychelles-owned cargo vessel sailing under a flag of convenience from the Caribbean island of St Vincent and the Grenadines, he said. It was hi-jacked last month in the Indian Ocean with a crew of 23 on board.
Source: TheNews.com.pk