/ 15 May 2006

Fighters patrol Mogadishu after bloody feuding

Columns of feuding, heavily armed fighters patrolled the divided streets of Mogadishu’s northern Sisi neighbourhood on Monday after a week of the deadliest violence in the Somali capital for 15 years.

Residents in Sisi, which has borne the brunt of the fighting that erupted a week ago, said it has been effectively carved into two distinct sections: one controlled by a United States-backed warlord alliance, the other by Islamic militia.

Taking advantage of the lull, Sisi residents cautiously returned on Monday to inspect their homes after having fled the fighting, and found many hit by the indiscriminate barrage of heavy machine gun, artillery and mortar fire.

“The people in Sisi are so poor, most of them can’t repair the houses damaged by the war,” said Asha Mohamed Osobow, a despondent mother of eight. “This violence will leave serious memories in my heart.”

“For me, what happened is not forgivable and unforgettable,” said Amina Abdulle, who said she lost two family members in the fighting.

“The fighting was like hell, no food at home, no place to work and you didn’t know where to flee,” said Idil Ibrahim, a roadside gasoline vendor in Sisi.

Hospital sources estimated that at least 130 people had been killed in the fighting, with more than 300 wounded, although there are still widely divergent accounts of the death toll.

The fighting was the third serious round of violence between the factions since February and became the deadliest clashes the capital had seen in 15 years as the battles raged during last week.

The warlords’ Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) denied it had agreed to a truce with the militia to end the violence.

It said it had not signed a ceasefire allegedly brokered by elders on Sunday, but had stopped fighting because the Islamists had suspended attacks on its forces.

“There is no ceasefire. Only one group was responsible for this violence, and if they stop, that is the end of the hostilities,” alliance spokesperson Hussein Gutale Raghe said.

“The ARPCT will not sign an agreement with foreign fighters or their hosts,” he told Agence France-Presse, referring to charges shared by the US that some of the city’s 11 Islamic courts are harbouring extremists, including al-Qaeda members.

But Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the chairperson of Mogadishu’s Islamic courts union, on Monday denied the claims of harbouring extremists and said that the militia had agreed to a ceasefire at the request of the elders.

“We accepted the ceasefire proposed by elders in north Mogadishu,” he told Mogadishu’s Radio Shabelle, adding: “We are not the attackers who need to stop violence. We were attacked without any reason.”

Buttressing its defences, the alliance set up a new checkpoint on the key road linking Mogadishu to the town of Afgoi, about 30km south, to prevent the Islamists from bolstering their forces, Raghe said.

The alliance, formed in February with US backing, has vowed to curb the influence of the courts that have won support by restoring some stability to areas in Mogadishu they control.

Although Washington has not confirmed its support for the warlord alliance, US officials have told AFP that the group has received US money and is one of several it is working with to contain the threat of Islamic radicalism in the country.

The Horn of Africa nation of some 10-million has been without a functioning central authority since the 1991 fall of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre plunged it into anarchy, with warlords battling for control of a patchwork of fiefdoms.

More than a dozen attempts to restore stability have failed, and the latest, a transitional government set up in 2004 in Kenya and now based in the town of Baidoa west of Mogadishu, has been racked by infighting and unable to assert control. — AFP