Somalia's transitional president has said that the southern port of Kismayo, the country's third-largest city, is not under the control of his Ethiopian-backed transitional federal government.
President Abdullahi Yusuf is currently on a medical trip to the United Kingdom where he is expected to undergo a once-a-year routine checkup.
"My health condition is good," he told Voice of America's Somali service program during a Monday interview.
The Somali president was asked a question regarding a mysterious visit to Kismayo this week by a member of the Eritrea-based opposition group.
Kismayo, Somalia's third-largest city and an important port
The anti-Ethiopian Somali opposition coalition, formally known as the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, is composed of former government officials and Islamic Courts clerics.
Local sources reported that ARS official Ugas Mohamed Weli spent a few days in Kismayo, galvanizing regional officials into action and spurring speculation of secret meetings with National Reconciliation Conference officials visiting the city.
An NRC delegation has been in Kismayo in recent weeks attempting to jumpstart a failed reconciliation process among feuding clans in Lower Jubba region, where Kismayo is located.
Mr. Weli was requested to leave Kismayo by local rulers and he left, inside sources said.
Kismayo-based government troops divided along clan allegiances and fought bitter battles in April and June, effectively leaving the port city under the control of a single clan faction.
"The city [of Kismayo] is not in the hands of the government at the moment," President Yusuf said, publicly admitting for the first time what many people already knew. "There are people there who control it [Kismayo] and if the government was there, they [opposition figures] would not enter."
The president indicated that there is no military solution to the Kismayo issue.
"We cannot fight the clans. We have to mediate among the local people and isolate the terror groups," President Yusuf said.
Intelligence sources believe that insurgent groups are hiding out in Lower Jubba region's dense jungles.
One government official who spoke confidentially with Garowe Online said the Ethiopian government opposes any military strike on Kismayo.
Ethiopian leaders do not wish to open a new front in Somalia, where they are helping Yusuf's weak government contain an Islamist-led insurgency, the source said.
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I guess Mogadihsu is too much for them. If Somalis could only unite, Ethiopian troops will be out of Somalia in seconds.
