/ 22 August 2008

Dozens killed in Somalia fighting

The death toll from the worst fighting in southern Somalia for months rose to 70 on Friday, with scores wounded, rights activists and residents said.

The last two days have been particularly bloody, even by the Horn of Africa nation’s standards, with Islamist insurgents battling pro-government militia in the southern port of Kismayu and similar clashes breaking out in the capital, Mogadishu.

Local rights activists said 55 people had died on Wednesday and Thursday in Kismayu, and witnesses said 15 more were killed in sporadic clashes on Friday.

Residents said most of the town was now under the control of Islamist insurgents from the al-Shabaab group. Its gunmen were conducting door-to-door searches for government fighters.

Somalia’s interim government and its Ethiopian allies have faced an Iraq-style insurgency of mortar attacks, roadside bombings and assassinations since early last year. The violence has killed more than 8 000 civilians and uprooted one million.

The government signed a peace deal with some opposition figures on Monday. But the agreement had already been rejected by the al-Shabaab rebels and other hardliners in the opposition.

Ali Bashi, head of Kismayu’s local Faanoole human rights group, said at least 100 people had been injured there.

”We condemn this genocide and urge the two groups to stop the fighting unconditionally,” he said.

The manager of Kismayu General Hospital, Abdi Ahmed Sugule, said there was only one doctor and a handful of nurses on duty.

”We are also running short of drugs and more people are on the way to the hospital,” Sugule said.

Kismayu had been relatively peaceful in recent months compared with the bombed-out Mogadishu, which was also the scene of fierce fighting on Thursday.

Some of those battles took place near President Abdullahi Yusuf’s Villa Somalia residence. Yusuf is visiting Ethiopia. — Reuters