A cautious welcome to the news that Somalia’s Islamists have apparently now quit the country.
The remaining 3,000 fighters of the Islamic Courts Union disappeared from the southern port of Kismayo overnight.
Intelligence from Ethiopian spotter planes flying overhead suggested the ultra-loyal rump of the Courts’ gunmen was heading towards the Kenyan border.
While it’s too early to say for sure whether the Transitional Federal Government is up to the task of bringing peace to a land which has not had a functioning government since 1991 the fact that the country is rid of an organisation which – while it was a force in the land – welcomed Al-Qaeda into the Horn of Africa must be seen as a positive development.
