At least 27 people were killed and 45 others wounded when fighting erupted between the militia of two clans in central Somalia, local elders contacted by field radio said on Tuesday.
The fighting, which broke out on Monday, pitted members of the Marehan clan against their Dir rivals in Herale village of Abudwaaq district, which is situated in the Galgudud region.
”Fourteen people were killed on Monday and early Tuesday, before the fighting subsided, but eight others died when the fighting resumed after midday on Tuesday,” elder Ahmed Mohamed Aden said by radio.
”Five others died when their vehicle hit a landmine on Tuesday near the contested Herale village, but so far we don’t know who planted the landmine,” Aden added.
The clashes are said to have been triggered by animosities over the murder in April of a prominent Marehan elder by people believed to be Dir clansmen.
Several hundred people have fled Herale since the renewed fighting broke out, local elder Abdulrashid Hassan said.
The elders have failed to broker a ceasefire and both sides were said to be regrouping, elders and militia officials said.
Somalia has been without a nationally recognised government and torn apart by factional warfare since the collapse of president Mohammed Siad Barre’s regime in 1991.
A reconciliation conference aimed at restoring a national administration in the Horn of Africa country has been going on in neighbouring Kenya since October last year. — Sapa-AFP