Comoros reclaims control of island
Soldiers were searching for a renegade colonel who had sought independence for the island and ruled there since 2001.
The government claim that it had retaken Anjouan, which could not immediately be verified, came a day after hundreds of its troops backed by African Union forces seized the island's capital, Mutsamudu.
"As you can imagine we are in a kind of jubilant mood, especially the way it (takeover) has gone because it has been very swift. In a matter of 18 hours the situation was under control," said Abdourahim Said Bacar, a government spokesman in Moroni, on Grand Comore island where the national government is based.
He said there were no major casualties.
Bacar said there were exchanges of gunfire Wednesday, "but I think by this time (Wednesday evening) all that has been solved and we think that for the time being we can say that the whole island has been secured."
Troops have yet to find the renegade rebel leader, Col. Mohamed Bacar. The colonel, who is not related to the government spokesman, gained control of Anjouan during a 2001 military coup and was elected president in disputed polls in 2002 and last May.
The government spokesman said a transitional government for Anjouan will be formed in a few days and its mandate will be to hold new presidential elections.
On Anjouan on Wednesday, there was evidence of looting of some government buildings in the capital. At the Interior Ministry, an Associated Press photographer saw scattered papers and files, and all the furniture was gone. At the main police station one child wore a police cap and another played with a riot shield.
Soldiers freed all the prisoners from the main jail in Mutsamudu on Wednesday to the cheers of residents.
One of those freed, Nasser Nafion, 40, said he was picked up by police Jan. 12 and was told he was being jailed because he is a distant relative of the Comoros president.
When the Comoros soldiers got to Mutsamudu, troops backing Col. Bacar came to the jail wanting to kill the prisoners, Nafion told the AP.
"We were saved by the penitentiary guards who refused to open our cells to them," he said. "This is the best day of my life. The people have saved us."
Anjouan is part of the Comoros — an archipelago of three main islands 250 miles off Africa's southeast coast. Each of the main islands has a regional president under the country's main leader, President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi.
In the 1990s, the army put down several attempts at secession on Anjouan. Then, rebel soldiers and some residents argued they wanted to reunite with France, the former colonial power, believing they would have better development, health and education.
The Comoros have experienced a series of coups and political upheavals since gaining independence from France in 1975. The late Bob Denard, a French mercenary, controlled the Comoros behind a figurehead leader for most of the 1980s.
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