ISIL takes over town in Somalia

Residents flee as insurgents’ black flag is raised

QANDALA, SOMALIA // ISIL captured the town of Qandala in the semi-autonomous Somalia region of Puntland.

About 50 insurgents seized the town yesterday and raised a black flag, said the mayor, Jama Mohamed Khurshe. Militants ordered residents to stop working and switched off all communications.

“Most of the residents fled when the militants entered,” said Mr Khurshe.

Puntland is on the Gulf of Aden, near the entrance to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, one of the world’s busiest shipping channels.

ISIL has been trying to make inroads in Somalia, where the rival Al Qaeda- linked Al Shabab group has waged an insurgency for a decade.