MOGADISHU, Somalia – Fierce fighting between Ethiopian-backed government forces and Islamic insurgents in Somalia’s capital has killed nearly 400 people — mostly civilians — in the past four days, a Somali human rights group said Monday.
The fighting abated long enough Monday to allow thousands of people to flee the ruined coastal city on foot and in donkey carts, cars and trucks. Some 47,000 people — mainly women and children — have abandoned their homes in the last 10 days, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Since February, nearly 100,000 people have fled the violence, the agency said.
Monday’s lull appeared to follow a truce between Ethiopian forces and insurgents, brokered by the capital’s dominant clan. But Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle said the accord was “null and void,” and warned residents to go because the fighting could resume at any time to “clean al-Qaida elements from Mogadishu.”
Ethiopian troops were seen reinforcing close to insurgent strongholds in the southern part of the city. Around 4,000 Ethiopian troops are in Mogadishu, said Western diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information related to security matters.
The
figures were the first to be compiled since the battles began Thursday, said Sudan Ali Ahmed, chairman of the Elman Human Rights Organization.
The group said 381 people were killed and 565 were wounded in the fighting, which started when Ethiopian troops with tanks and attack helicopters launched an offensive to crush insurgents linked to an Islamic group driven from power in December.
The tolls were calculated from hospital figures, local groups and burials but do not include Ethiopian soldiers that may have been killed, he said. The numbers may be much higher as bodies have not been collected from the dusty alleyways and backstreets in the south of the capital.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Somalia said many of the wounded still need help. “Trapped by the fighting, many wounded are unable to access medical facilities and lie unattended in the streets,” the agency said.
Ethiopia claims it has killed more than 200 insurgents during the offensive; the figure could not be independently confirmed.
On Monday, Gen. Abdullahi Ali Omar, the commander of Somalia’s army, narrowly escaped a roadside bombing as he drove in a government convoy from his hotel, a clear sign the insurgency is still strong.
One soldier was injured in the blast, said presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamoud Hussein. “An al-Qaida cell was behind the explosion,” he said. “They want to kill key government officials. They want to do here what they are doing in Iraq.”
International efforts were under way to resolve the crisis, with European, African, Arab and U.S. diplomats expected to meet in Cairo on Tuesday.
In Eritrea, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was holding talks on the fighting with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. Eritrea is accused of backing the Islamic movement that was driven from power in December by its rival, Ethiopia, along with U.S. special forces. The U.S. has accused the courts of having ties to al-Qaida.
On Saturday, a Ugandan member of the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia was killed by a mortar. Uganda has about 1,400 troops in the force, the only contributing country so far.
The Islamic movement stockpiled thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition during the six months they controlled Mogadishu. The militants have long rejected any secular government and have sworn to fight until Somalia becomes an Islamic emirate.
The country has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned each other. A national government was established in 2004, but has failed to assert any real control.
Ethiopia pours hundreds of troops into Mogadishu
MOGADISHU (AFP) –
Hundreds of Ethiopian troop reinforcements entered Mogadishu Monday, after four days of heavy fighting sparked by an Ethiopian offensive against Islamist rebels
and clan gunmen.
Residents on the outskirts of Mogadishu said the fresh Ethiopian deployment entered the capital on the road from Baidoa, where the interim government is based.
Ethiopian troops and their military hardware remained in positions in the Ali Kamin neighbourhood, near the main soccer stadium, where fighting has been fiercest and
sporadic gunfire rang out Monday.
No clear death toll is available from fighting since the Ethiopian army launched its drive to rid the capital of hostile militia on Thursday, but the International Committee
of the Red Cross estimates that dozens of civilians have been killed.
The UN refugee agency said Sunday that some 10,000 people had fled Mogadishu violence over the past three days alone.
A doctor told AFP Monday that Ethiopian troops had raided the hospital in Ali Kamin, which has also been hit by mortar shells.
“The Ethiopian forces broke into the hospital. They broke the doors of the offices. They have collected all the medicine and they also detained one of the doctors,”
said doctor Muhamud Hassan, from the Al Hayat hospital.
“We don’t know why they are doing this but we are not involved in the fighting. There are a lot of patients and some have been wounded by artillery shells that landed
in the hospital,” Hassan said.
Elders from the capital’s dominant Hawiye clan Sunday called for an end to the fighting, which international observers say was the worst in more than 15 years, but
Ethiopia did not comment on the second attempt at a truce in as many weeks.
The elders asked the African Union peacekeeping mission, which has some 1,500 Ugandan troops in Mogadishu, to monitor the implementation of a ceasefire.
One Ugandan soldier was killed and five injured over the weekend, marking the first death among African Union peacekeepers deployed here.
Ethiopian forces helped the Somali transitional government drive out the leaders of the Islamist movement from south and central Somalia three months ago.
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Mogadishu’s dominant clan said Sunday it has brokered a truce with Ethiopian military officials who are supporting Somalia’s government, even as mortar shells continued slamming into the capital for a fourth day.
Ahmed Diriye, the Hawiye clan spokesman, said fighting in Mogadishu should end within hours. Ethiopian officials were not immediately available for comment.
Somali government troops and their Ethiopian allies have been waging a fierce offensive since Thursday to wipe out Islamic insurgents, sparking some of the heaviest fighting in 15 years in the capital. Untold numbers of civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded.
The offensive has focused on parts of the capital controlled by a clan that is a major supporter of more radical elements of the Council of Islamic Courts, which ruled Mogadishu for six months before being driven out in December. That clan is the Habr Gedir, a branch of the larger Hawiye clan.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said dozens of people have been killed since Thursday and more than 220 wounded, most of them civilians with bullet, grenade and other wounds. But the fighting is so severe and widespread that bodies were not being picked up or even tallied. Hospitals were overwhelmed, with patients sleeping on floors.
“The victims are the civilians, only civilians are dying and getting wounded in this fighting,” Khadijo Farah Warsame, 45, a mother of seven, said Saturday.
Ethiopia says its forces have killed more than 200 insurgents since the assault started.
Somali presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamoud Hussein on Saturday blamed the violence on foreign terrorists, saying al-Qaida had sent fighters to battle government and allied troops.
“These elements were behind the downing of the helicopter yesterday,” he said.
The insurgents are linked to the Council of Islamic Courts, which was driven from power in December by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers, accompanied by U.S. special forces. The U.S. has accused the courts of having ties to al-Qaida.
The Islamic courts stockpiled thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition during the six months they controlled Mogadishu. The insurgency will likely last until that stockpile is depleted, or key leaders are killed.
The militants have long rejected any secular government and have sworn to fight until Somalia becomes an Islamic emirate. Clan elders have tried to negotiate several cease-fires, but cannot control the young insurgents.
The U.N.’s refugee agency said 58,000 people have fled violence in the Somali capital since the beginning of February.
Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another.
A U.N. peacekeeping operation in the 1990s saw clashes between foreign troops and Somali fighters, including the notorious downing of two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters in 1993 — which was followed by a firefight that killed some 300 Somalis in 12 hours. The U.S. withdrew from Somalia in 1994, and that was followed a year later by the departure of U.N. peacekeepers.
A national government was established in 2004 but has failed to assert any real control.
Bodies pile up in Somalia
MOGADISHU – Officials have lost count of the number of people killed during a fresh wave of violence in Somalia.
Mogadishu has been hit by mortar and gunfire during the fourth day of a military operation against Islamic extremists.
The offensive has sparked the heaviest fighting in the capital since the early 1990s.
On Friday, insurgents shot down an Ethiopian helicopter gunship and mortar shells slammed into a hospital, leaving corpses piled in the streets and wounding hundreds of people.
One witness said: “The victims are the civilians, only civilians are dying and getting wounded in this fighting.”
The Red Cross says dozens of people have been killed since Thursday and more than 220 wounded, most of them civilians with bullet, grenade and other wounds.
But the fighting is so severe and widespread that bodies were not being picked up or even counted. Hospitals were overwhelmed, with patients were sleeping on floors.
Ethiopia says its forces have killed more than 200 insurgents since the assault started.
Somali presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamoud Hussein on Saturday blamed the violence on foreign terrorists, saying al Qaeda had sent fighters to battle government and allied troops.
The insurgents are linked to the Council of Islamic Courts, which was driven from power in December by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers, accompanied by U.S. special forces.
Islamic fighters stockpiled thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition during the six months they controlled Mogadishu.
The UN’s refugee agency said 58,000 people have fled violence in the Somali capital since the beginning of February.
Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another. (Source: MyFoxOrlando.com)
