Somali army takes control of strategic city, regional leader resigns

Residents flee and aid agencies suspend work as tensions rise in drought-hit South West state

Somalia's national army took control of the biggest city in South West state on Monday, prompting the regional leader to resign two weeks after his administration said it was severing ties with the federal government.

The strategic city of Baidoa, the administrative capital of South West state, is home to international peacekeepers and humanitarian agencies in an area affected by drought, conflict and displacement.

"Federal forces have taken over Baidoa, ... it is now calm ... but it looks like a ghost town," local elder Adan Hussein told Reuters.

A shopkeeper in Baidoa, Hussein Abdullahi, said federal troops were in control of his part of the city, which is about 245 km (150 miles) northwest of the capital Mogadishu.

South West state president Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen wrote in a statement on Facebook that he had resigned, days after being re-elected for another five-year term.

Many residents have fled Baidoa over the past week and some aid agencies suspended activities, fearing clashes could erupt between the army and regional forces.

The dispute between South West state is the latest sign of strain in the Horn of Africa country's fragile federal system, where disputes over elections and the balance of power between Mogadishu and regional administrations repeatedly open up political fault lines.

Laftagareen's administration opposed constitutional amendments backed by the federal government.

Somalia's federal information ministry said in a message read out on national television that "the former South West state administration ... created political conflict". It said federal forces had been welcomed in Baidoa on Monday.