Militias led by two lawmakers in Somalia’s Parliament fought for control of a major south-western trading centre on Monday, killing at least 15 people.
The battle began at 3am local time when fighters from a clan faction allied to neighbouring Ethiopia attacked Baidoa with mortars and other heavy weapons after several colleagues infiltrated the town.
At least 15 people were killed and more than 20 others were wounded in the fighting, said Sahra Madey, a medical worker at the only hospital in the town. The death toll could be higher because fighting began when most people were asleep, and it was not immediately possible to establish the number of those killed inside their homes.
The assailants, commanded by lawmaker Hassan Mohamed Nur Shargudud, are trying to seize the town from a group led by Mohamed Ibrahim Habsadeh. The two men have disagreed about where the new government, currently in exile in Kenya, should be established and the role of Ethiopian troops as peacekeepers to protect the interim government.
Somalia’s Parliament was convened in exile in 2004 with hopes of one day leading the country to peace, but the challenge is enormous. The rivalries that plunged the Horn of Africa nation into anarchy in the 1990s are ever ready to explode.
In Baidoa on Monday, the militia fighters clashed in street battles, using anti-aircraft guns mounted on pick-up trucks, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles, residents said by telephone.
Fighting subsided at about 9.30am when the assailants withdrew from Baidoa, after another warlord in the town, Aadan Saransor, sent his fighters to back Habsadeh. Saransor was originally expected not to support Habsadeh.
Hundreds of people fled their homes as fighting subsided, fearing that clashes could restart because each warring faction was ferrying in reinforcements.
The self-proclaimed leader of neighbouring Lower Shabelle region, Sheik Yusuf Mohamed Siyad Indhaade, said he had sent fighters and pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns to Baidoa to back Habsadeh.
Ethiopian-backed Somali warlords — now lawmakers — and Ethiopian-backed President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed have suggested setting up the new government in Baidoa and in Jowhar, both about 80km north of Mogadishu, because the capital is too dangerous. Yusuf has also called for Ethiopian and other regional peacekeepers to protect the new government.
Habsadeh and other Somali leaders who consider Ethiopia an enemy have rejected both proposals, causing a split among the warlords who took part in the peace process to form the new government.
Mediators have said that, while a government was formed, reconciliation efforts have stalled, placing the peace process in danger.
Islamic fundamentalists, who make up a relatively small percentage of Somalis, have also opposed the new government. — Sapa-AP