Somalia's al Shabaab militants have taken control of the southern port town of Marka, hours after African Union troops and the Somalia National Army left.
"We now control Marka police station and the entire town. AMISOM left the town early this morning," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's spokesman for military operations, told Reuters on Friday.
Residents said the militant Islamist group raised its flags inside the town, which is situated 100 kilometres southwest of Mogadishu, and started to preach to residents using loudspeakers.
Local police officer Hussein Elmi said they had moved out of the town to the outskirts without giving a reason for the move.
Kenyan troops, part of an African Union (AU) force in Somalia (AMISOM), took heavy losses when al Shabaab launched a dawn raid on their camp near the Kenyan border on January 15, prompting the Kenyan and Somali forces to abandon some positions.
