Six people died and at least 11 were wounded when fighting broke out early on Monday in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, witnesses and medical personnel said.
Witnesses said militias of the city’s Islamic courts clashed with residents in the northern part of the capital over the control of the bus traffic in the area.
Residents said guns as well as missiles were used in the fighting, and unconfirmed reports said a missile hit a house, killing an additional three people inside.
”The Islamic courts are trying to dominate the whole area,” said Abdi Aden Hussein, spokesperson for the resident militias.
Large groups of people went to other parts of the city to escape the fighting.
”We are tired of the fighting, we are waiting for the government. We ask the international community to safeguard us from those [in Somalia] who still want to fight,” said Madina Abdi Ali, a mother of eight who had fled from her house.
The fighting took place a few hundred metres from the compound of the Austrian organisation SOS Children’s Villages, which runs an orphanage, school and hospital in the city.
”We were not hit, and now the fighting has died down,” Claudio Croce of SOS Somalia said.
The situation remained tense late on Monday, however, with both militias and residents holding their ground.
Tension has risen in the Somali capital in recent weeks ahead of the planned relocation of the country’s government-in-exile from Kenya, and the proposed deployment of thousands of African Union peacekeeping troops.
Many warlords and prominent businessmen boasting their own militias are opposing any move that would curb their own influence in a country that has seen no central authority for more than a decade.
On Sunday, a group of Somali ministers, among them Mogadishu’s most powerful warlords, issued a statement in Nairobi saying a deployment of peacekeepers from either Ethiopia or Djibouti will not be acceptable.
Ethiopia has been seen as a player in Somali politics and is considered a strong backer of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.
The Somali prime minister and president are currently travelling in Somalia to assess the situation ahead of the planned relocation.
It is not certain whether they will go to Mogadishu, due to the insecurity in the city. — Sapa-DPA