A European Union envoy met with senior leaders in Somalia on Wednesday to promote peace talks after weeks of sabre rattling and recent clashes between the besieged government and an advancing Islamic movement, which killed 10 people.
Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and aid, will try to get both sides to stop fighting and commit to high-level peace talks, according to an EU statement released on Tuesday. He arrived at his first stop, the government garrison town of Baidoa, on Wednesday morning and was expected to fly to the capital, Mogadishu, later in the day.
Michel was meeting with Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi and the leader of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, Addeh Museh, Government Information Minister Ali Ahmed Jama said. The EU delegation will later meet with President Abdullahi Yusuf and members of Parliament, he added.
Fears of a full-blown civil war have intensified in recent weeks as the government and the rival Council of Islamic Courts dismissed efforts to schedule peace talks and threatened military action.
Both sides have moved fighters, fuel and ammunition to the front lines.
Late on Tuesday, government troops and Islamic militia clashed near Idale, a front-line village north-west of Mogadishu, spokespersons from both sides said. One government soldier was killed in the fighting on Tuesday night, Barre Aden Hirale, the government’s defence minister said.
Hirale’s deputy, Salad Ali Jelle, held a news conference later and said government forces had killed 10 Islamic fighters and that the fighting resumed on Wednesday.
”Early in the morning they shelled us with mortars and we responded with artillery in self-defence,” he said.
Abdirahin Ali Mudey, spokesperson for the courts, accused Ethiopian troops of being responsible for the clash. ”They attacked the positions of our troops and they were repulsed,” he said. He refused to discuss casualties.
Residents also reported Islamic forces on the move, advancing on the government-held towns of Bardhere and Farlibah.
Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991. The government, backed by Ethiopian troops, holds only a small area around the central town of Baidoa. The Islamic militias control the capital, Mogadishu, but have also fanned out across most of southern Somalia.
The secular government, backed by the United Nations, has rejected religious rule for Somalia, while the Muslim leaders have insisted on an Islamic government.
A war in Somalia right now will be devastating, the top UN official for Somalia warned last week. A drought wiped out most of the country’s crops and livestock in late 2005 and early 2006, while flooding since September has destroyed tens of thousands of homes and spread more misery.
Add fighting to the country’s problems and as many as 400 000 refugees could flee into neighbouring Kenya.
Another concern has been the Islamic movement’s alleged ties to international terrorists, something Islamic leaders have repeatedly denied. — Sapa-AP