Hiiraan Online
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
MOGADISHU (HOL) -----The first civilian airline carrying dozens of passengers has landed in the agricultural town of Bardhere on Tuesday few weeks after the allied forces have ousted militants, in a sign that life is returning to normalcy in the southwestern town.
The flight from Mogadishu has landed at the town’s airport, paving the way for more new flights to Bardhere which has been under militants control for the past six years.
The passengers including former residents of the town have arrived to see it after many years that they had to pass up the idea of travelling to there for security reasons.
The development comes few days after local authorities have declared the reopening of Bardhere airport and called for the local airliners to fly into the town.
Despite the loss of Bardhere, AlShabab still controls few towns, mostly in southern Somalia where its fighters are waging a deadly guerilla war.
Thousands of residents who fled the town have now returned.
Bardhere, an important agricultural town in southwestern Somalia was one of the few income sources under Al-Shabab control where they taxed the town’s bulky agricultural productions. During their control, the group also taxed commercial goods to the northeastern Kenyan town of Wajir as the town is the major route for the region’s inter-regional commercial activity zone.