Somalia’s government on Monday said its stand-off with the country’s powerful Islamic movement posed a ”grave danger” to the region and urged the world to step in and avert a looming all-out conflict.
As Islamic and government forces faced off in southern Somalia after two days of deadly clashes that claimed dozens of lives, the government said a full-scale war in the lawless country would spill across borders.
The government ”draws the attention of the international community to the grave danger that the current situation poses to peace and stability in Somalia and the region and would like the issue addressed urgently,” the information ministry said in a statement.
It claimed foreign fighters, notably from Eritrea, were streaming into the country to support the Islamists, who control swathes of south and central Somalia.
”Thousands of Eritreans and other foreigners, who are answering Islamic Courts Union’s [ICU] call for ‘jihad’, are pouring into ICU-held regions,” it added.
”Our intelligence sources also indicate increased flow of arms shipments from Eritrea and abroad,” the statement said.
Last week, Islamic fighters and government troops, backed by Ethiopian forces, exchanged artillery fire for two days south of Baidoa, the seat of government in a deadly escalation of the fighting.
Both sides accused each other of starting the conflict in Dinsoor, 110km south of Baidoa, with the government accusing the Islamists of ”constant aggression, warmongering and the influx of foreign terrorists”.
”Furthermore, the government views the attack on the garrison in the Dinsoor district as a blatant attempt to expand into areas in [the] Bay and Gedo regions,” it added.
The Islamists have declared jihad, or holy war, against the thousands of Ethiopian soldiers it says are in Somalia protecting the government and pledged to extend the fight to any peacekeeper entering the country.
Ethiopia denies having deployed combat troops to Somalia, but admits sending several hundred military advisers and trainers to help the government at its base Baidoa, the only town held by the two-year-old administration.
Many fear that full-scale war in Somalia will engulf the Horn of Africa region, drawing in arch-foes Ethiopia, on the side of the government, and Eritrea, on the side of the Islamists. — Sapa-AFP