MUTSAMUDU, Comoros (AFP) — A coalition of Comoran and African Union troops on Tuesday invaded the rebel Comoran island of Anjouan battling to win control from a renegade president.
The 1,400 coalition of federal troops with soldiers from Tanzania and Sudan quickly took Mustamudu, the island's capital and main port, and the airport, the Comoran government claimed.
The invasion started just before dawn in a bid to capture rebel leader Mohamed Bacar, whose election last year as president of Anjouan has never been recognised by the international community and who has faced warnings of an invasion ever since.
Bacar's forces -- with red ribbons, the colour of the Anjouan flag, knotted around the barrels of their assault rifles -- were initially deployed on the road between Mutsamudu and the nearby town of Ouani.
Bacar's Dar el Najah presidential palace on the heights of Ouani was deserted. Sentry posts were empty, the building's doors wide open and undefended by Bacar's forces.
Exchanges of heavy gun fire could still be heard on the outskirts of Ouani as the coalition forces tried to flush out pockets of Bacar's forces, believed to number barely 400.
AU troops and forces from the Comoran National Development Army (AND) involved in the operation -- dubbed "Democracy in Comoros" -- converged on Bacar's residence, but the embattled leader's whereabouts remained unclear.
The forces "are battling a few pockets of resistance near Barakani, close to Bacar's residence," Comoran Defence Minister Mohamed Bacar Dossar told AFP in the federal capital Moroni.
"The troops are making quick progress," he added saying that they controlled Mustamudu port and the main airport.
It was not immediately possible to establish a casualty toll.
Comoros President Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi announced in a national televised address Monday that he had given the green light to the long-threatened joint operation to reunify the three-island archipelago.
"I have ordered the Comoran army and the the forces of our country's friends to bring Anjouan back under the rule of law and free her citizens," Sambi said, adding that he did so "without joy, like swallowing a bitter pill".
Ships carrying the AU and Comoran troops left the nearby island of Moheli early on Monday, and a helicopter dropped leaflets on Anjouan warning citizens that the taskforce could arrive within hours to depose Bacar.
"The latest attempt... to bring them back to reason failed like the others," he said, in reference to months of mediation by the African Union.
Since winning independence from France in 1975, the Comoros have never known constitutional stability and have faced 19 coups or coup attempts.
Bacar had been the elected president of Anjouan -- each of the three islands in the federation has its own leader, under a federal president -- since 2002.
He was re-elected in June 2007 in a poll that was declared illegal by Sambi's federal government and was never recognised by the African Union. He has run the territory as a breakaway province ever since.
In an interview with AFP on Thursday, Bacar had taken a defiant stand.
"I am still determined to defend Anjouan despite my concern that people are ready to come here and fire on the Anjouanese. But I am continuing with my preparations to defend Anjouan," he said.
In addition to the African Union, France, the country's former colonial power, has also given the operation to oust Bacar its blessing, and helped airlift the AU troops to the area.
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