Comoros: African-Backed Forces Take Rebel Island
26 March 2008
By Reuters

Hundreds of soldiers from the African Union and Comoros seized rebel-held Anjouan, one of the three islands that make up the archipelago nation, and the government said its renegade leader, Col. Mohamed Bacar, had fled dressed as a woman.

The forces attacked at dawn to topple Colonel Bacar, a French-trained former gendarme who seized power in 2001. “Anjouan is under total control of the army,” Maj. Ahmed Sidi said on the neighboring island of Mohéli. “So far we have no dead or wounded. The rebel chiefs have all run away.”

From early morning, gunfire and explosions echoed across Anjouan. The African Union had deployed 1,350 soldiers, and analysts said it was hoping that a relatively easy victory in Anjouan, with 300,000 destitute residents, would earn some international prestige to offset the struggles of its peacekeeping missions in Sudan and Somalia. But South Africa criticized the military assault. “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 said in Pretoria.

© The New York Times 2013.
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