African-backed Comoros forces take rebel island
Ahmed Ali Amir , Reuters
Published: Tuesday, March 25, 2008
MORONI (Reuters) - Troops from the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros seized the rebel island of Anjouan on Tuesday with African Union military help and the government said its self-declared leader had fled dressed as a woman.
The forces attacked at dawn to topple self-declared leader Mohamed Bacar, a French-trained former gendarme who took power in 2001 and clung on after an illegal election last year on the wooded, hilly island of 300,000 people.
Many Anjouan inhabitants accuse Bacar of ruling through the threat of violence and repressing any dissent.
The Comoros islands -- which grow vanilla, cloves and ylang-ylang, a flower whose oils are used in aromatherapy -- were first settled by Arab seafarers 1,000 years ago, then later became a pirate haven.
After suffering some 20 coups or coup attempts since independence, Comoros is trying to shrug off a history of instability.
Additional reporting by Ed Harris in Mauritius, Paul Simao in Pretoria; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne and Katie Nguyen; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
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"Anjouan island is under total control of the army," Major Ahmed Sidi told reporters on the neighboring island of Moheli.
The Indian Ocean archipelago nation of Comoros said it had seized complete control of the rebel island of Anjouan on March 25, 2008 after a seaborne assault backed by the African Union.
"So far we have no dead or wounded to lament. The rebel chiefs have all run away, and none has yet been found."
A federal government spokesman said Bacar was spotted in the village of Sandapoini where he was thought to be trying to escape by boat to the nearby French-run island of Mayotte.
"It seems, according to various sources, that he is dressed as a woman," the spokesman, Abdourahim Said Bacar, told Reuters.
With phone connections to Anjouan cut, there was no independent confirmation of that.
From early morning, gunfire and explosions echoed across Anjouan, one of three islands in the coup-prone archipelago that won independence from France in 1975.
Hundreds of Comorian and AU troops quickly took the capital, airport and other towns, government officials said. One said several of Bacar's officials had been arrested, including his justice minister.
The African Union had deployed some 1,350 troops to the spice and perfume-producing islands, which lie around 300 km (190 miles) east of the African mainland and have a total population of about 700,000.
TEST FOR AFRICAN UNION
Analysts say the AU is hoping to secure a relatively easy victory in Anjouan to earn some international prestige to offset the struggles of its peacekeeping missions in Sudan and Somalia.
Others say the tough AU stance on Anjouan, which tried to break away from the other islands in 1997, reflects its aversion to any secessionist moves on a continent where borders were often drawn arbitrarily by colonial masters.
Spearheading the AU mission are Tanzania and Sudan, which themselves face calls for independence from semi-autonomous Zanzibar and southern Sudan respectively.
But continental power South Africa, which had tried to help mediate an end to the crisis, criticized the military assault and said it could lead to more instability.
"I think it is very unfortunate that the military action has taken place because it takes the Comoros back to this history of force instead of resolving matters peacefully," President Thabo Mbeki told reporters in Pretoria.
Comoros' federal government accuses Bacar of secessionist aspirations, although he maintains he is fighting for more autonomy rather than independence.
A statement said Comoros President Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi, an Islamist businessman and native of Anjouan, was committed to holding new Anjouan elections as soon as possible.