MOGADISHU: Somali troops backed by African peacekeepers on Sunday recaptured the last major port in Somalia held by the Shebab, removing a key source of revenue for the Islamist militia.

The move was another blow for Al Qaeda’s main affiliate in Africa and came just a month after the death of their leader Ahmed Abdi Godane in a US air and drone strike.

The African Union’s AMISOM force, which draws 22,000 soldiers from six nations, said Barawe, 200km southwest of Mogadishu, fell without “much resistance from the terrorist group”.

“The terrorists used the port there to import arms as well as receive foreign fighters into their ranks,” an AMISOM statement said.

“The group also used Barawe to export charcoal to the Middle East, a lucrative multi-million-dollar business that served as their main source of funding,” the statement said.

Provincial Governor Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur said the situation was “calm and the militiamen had fled before the forces reached the town”. “They could not put up resistance and have emptied their positions,” he said.

The Shebab exported charcoal through Barawe to Gulf countries, earning at least $25 million a year from the trade, according to UN estimates.

“What is very significant is that the ‘capital’ of the Shebab has fallen,” a specialist on Somalia said.

The specialist said the Shebab, who also lost control of the strategic port of Kismayo in October 2012, now had no major town in their hands.

The Shebab have vowed to avenge their leader’s death and continue their fight to topple the country’s internationally-backed government.

On Saturday, a Shebab commander, Mohamed Abu Abdallah, said the militia would maintain pressure on Somali and African Union forces even if the militia lost Barawe.

“Let me assure you that we will never leave around Barawe, the fighting will continue and we will turn the town into graveyards of the enemy,” he said, quoted by a pro-Shebab website.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2014