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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 9 May 2006

SOMALIA: More deaths in third day of Mogadishu fighting

NAIROBI, 9 May 2006 (IRIN) - The death toll continued to rise in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as fighting between rival militias entered its third day, local sources said.

"As of last night [Monday], the death toll stood at 41. It will get higher, since the fighting is still going on," said a doctor at Keysaney Hospital in the north of the city, where most of the injured were being treated.

So far 113 people were receiving care in various hospitals in the capital. Among those were a two-year-old boy, his one-year-old sister, who were wounded when a mortar bomb hit their home on Monday evening in Yaqshid District. "The boy lost both legs, and the little girl has a serious stomach wound," said Awes Fodey, a local resident.

"If the fighting continues, the hospitals will not be able to cope," the doctor said. "Some of the hospitals have already run out of medicines," warned the doctor.

The clashes started on Sunday in the Si Si area of north Mogadishu, when armed groups loyal to Mogadishu militia leader Nur Daqle attacked militia led by the chairman of the Islamic courts, Shaykh Sharif Shaykh Ahmed. Daqle and Ahmed belong to the Agoon Yar subclan of the Abgal community. What started as an internal feud soon became a battle between the Islamic courts and the newly created Alliance for Peace and the Fight Against International Terrorism, which comprises several Mogadishu-based faction leaders.

Hundreds of families fled their homes in the city's northern outskirts as the fighting entered its third day. "This is the biggest exodus we have seen since February [when the factional fighting began]," said a local observer.

Another source, who requested anonymity, said the displacement was due to the indiscriminate use of mortar bombs. "They [the Alliance group] are using mortars and even shelling areas where there is no fighting. It is almost a deliberate attempt on their part to spread the fighting to all of Mogadishu," he said. "People living in Sanaa, Arjentiina, Obasiibo Yaqshid [all in north Mogadishu and close to the fighting] are leaving because they are terrified by this new tactic."

As the violence continued, many families that had endured two days of clashes "had given up hope that the fighting would stop," said a local journalist. "Some have gone south, while many others are heading north to the town of Balad."

Elders and civil-society groups that had tried to intervene had so far been unsuccessful, the journalist said.

Any mediation efforts to resolve the conflict have been complicated by the public perception that "there is foreign involvement," said Abdullahi Shirwa, a member of Civil Society in Action, a local group. The impression that the fighting is being driven by outside influences is "making intervention by clan elders very difficult."

[ENDS]

This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006