Tension was high in southern Somalia on Saturday as forces loyal to the powerful Islamists and Ethiopia-backed government troops reinforced defences, setting the stage for fresh clashes, witnesses and officials said.
A day after the Islamists threatened to attack Baidoa, the seat of the weak government after pitched battles, rival sides deployed fighters and armoury on two fronts preparing for a new round of fighting, they said.
Government forces backed by Ethiopian troops headed to the outskirts of Dinsoor, 110km south of Baidoa, the scene of previous clashes, as hundreds of Islamic militia left the capital Mogadishu bound for a second front.
”We are making reinforcements because there could be fighting any time,” government commander Ibrahim Batari told Agence France-Presse from Baidoa, about 250km north-west of Mogadishu.
”We have taken most of our troops to the frontline to participate in the fighting against the Islamists,” he added.
The Islamists responded by deploying hundreds of fighters in Burhakaba, about 50km east of Baidoa, opening a new front for possible fighting and shattering hopes of an armistice.
”I think there could be fighting any time,” Sheikh Mukhta Robow, the Islamists deputy security chief.
In addition, the Islamic movement banned traffic from Mogadishu to Baidoa in a bid to reduce potential civilian casualities.
”Tension is very high at the frontline so we want to prevent civilians from accessing that area,” Robow told AFP.
The Islamists claimed that at least 50 people were killed — 30 government troops and 20 Islamists — but there was no independent confirmation.
The government army said it had lost troops, but refused to give figure.
”We lost a lot of men,” Butari said.
Many fear a full-scale war could erupt in Somalia and spread throughout the Horn of Africa, drawing in Ethiopia and its arch-foe Eritrea, which denies backing the Islamists.
Somalia has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Siad Barre and the two-year-old government has failed to exert control across the nation of 10 million people. – Sapa-AFP