Kismayo Port News

Kenya's military spokesman Cyrus Oguna verified that his forces had shelled the town after Al-Shabaab militants opened fire at Kenyan warships patrolling Somali coast. This was the first bombardment of Kismayo by the Kenyans whose naval ships regularly patrol the Somali coast. Local eyewitnesses in Kismayo say that a Kenyan warship opened gunfire early morning of May 29, and shells wounded several residents including a boy and his mother. Analysts supposed that Kismayo port being the major source of income for Al-Shabaab islamists would be the key target of Kenyan forces which entered Somalia in Oct 2011. Nevertheless, the Kenyans have made minor progress inland Somalia through the recent 7 months.

The MV Basra II, which plies the Indian Ocean waters, was consumed by a fire, said to have started from the kitchen. The cargo ship burnt down at Mombasa's Old Port as it prepared to sail to Kismayo Port in Somali. The Standard reported that the vessel's owner, Hassan Hash, said that the ship's goods compartment was laden with mattresses, tea and coffee destined for Somali. More destruction was, however, averted when a fisherman spotted fire from the burnt ship and pulled the vessel from two other larger ones, MV Ronja- Zanzibar and MV Clanita, that had docked by its side. Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) deployed one of its multipurpose tugboats…