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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
SOMALIA: Continuing fighting forces hundreds more to flee homes
NAIROBI, 21 Dec 2006 (IRIN) - The number of people fleeing the southern Somalia towns of Baidoa and Buur Hakaba swelled on Thursday as fighting between forces of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) entered a second day, sources told IRIN.
"Yesterday [Wednesday] we had people coming from the Daynuunay area [epicenter of the fighting]. Today, many Buur residents are leaving their homes," Mukhtar Atosh, a resident of Buur Hakaba, said.
A source in Baidoa said that "people were leaving before, but the numbers were not that big. Today [Thursday] and yesterday [Wednesday] we are seeing more people leaving, including business people."
A civil society source told IRIN that the people were "leaving fearing more fighting."
"Many of the people fleeing are agro-pastoralists, who would [normally] be tending their farms and livestock, but will now be IDPs (internally displaced persons)," Abdullahi Shirwa of the Civil Society in Action, a coalition of civil-society groups, said. "If fighting continues, I am afraid we are looking a humanitarian disaster."
The fighting began on Tuesday, a day before the arrival of the European Commissioner (EC) for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, who was in the country to mediate between the two sides.
Michel led an EC delegation to Baidoa, where the TFG is based, for talks with President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi. He later travelled to the capital, Mogadishu, for discussions with the UIC, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the chairman of the UIC Consultative Council, and other leaders.
"I am very happy to inform you all that the mission can be considered as a full success because both parties - and this is very important - reiterated their commitment to the Khartoum dialogue process, and political solution to the Somali crisis. This is the first principle that is shared by both parties," Michel told reporters on Wednesday evening in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on his return from Somalia.
The UIC described their meeting with Michel as positive. "We have given our commitment to attend the peace talks in Khartoum," Sheikh Abdirahman Janaqow, the UIC first vice-chairman, who attended the meeting, told IRIN on Thursday.
The TFG said their side of the talks had been open. "We had candid and frank discussions with Commissioner Michel. We have given him our views on the situation in the country and the way forward," Ali Jama Jangali, Minster of Information said.
The fighting which began in Iidale village, 55 km south of Baidoa and Buulo Jadid, 23 km north of Baidoa, spread on Thursday to the Daynunay area, 23 km north of Baidoa, according to a local resident in Buur Hakaba, 60 km north of Baidoa.
Although the fighting subsided on Wednesday evening, "it resumed with a vengeance at midnight", the Buur Hakaba resident said. He added that the southern front was "quiet early Thursday, but picked up late morning.
"Both sides, he added, were mobilising forces and seemed to be gearing up for an escalation in violence, in which both sides are claiming to have the upper hand.
Death toll rises
Medical sources told IRIN that the "death toll on both sides could be as high as 50".
"Both sides are not bringing their dead to hospitals, but the number of wounded which we estimate to be between 150 to 200, indicate that there is a high number of fatalities on both sides," said a doctor in Mogadishu currently in touch with medical personnel in Buur Hakaba and Baidoa.
The UIC are keeping their wounded in Buur Hakaba, and the TFG are taking their wounded to Baidoa, said the Doctor.
The TFG was installed in late 2004 in an effort to bring peace and security to the Horn of Africa country which has been without an effective government for 16 years. In June this year, the UIC defeated the warlords who had controlled Mogadishu since 1991, after the collapse of the regime led by Muhammad Siyad Barre. The UIC has since extended its authority to large areas in the south and central regions of the country.
ah/jm
[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
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