One explosion and some gunfire sounded across Mogadishu on Monday morning, but the Somali capital was generally quieter after four days of non-stop battles pitting Ethiopian and Somali troops against insurgents.
Residents say several hundred people have died since soldiers launched an offensive against the rebels on Thursday.
”Last night [Sunday] was the first night I have slept since the war started,” a clan militia fighter, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. ”People see this as a chance to collect their belongings and get out.”
While the generalised shelling and gunfire seen across the city in recent days had stopped on Monday, a single blast followed by some gunfire rocked the Kilometer Four area of south Mogadishu around 8am (5am GMT), a Reuters witness said.
It was unclear what had caused it.
Leaders of the city’s dominant Hawiye clan said on Sunday they had reached a ceasefire with Ethiopian troops who are supporting the transitional Somali government.
”We stopped the fighting on our side and they started respecting the ceasefire on their side late last night,” one Hawiye leader told Reuters.
But previous truces have been broken.
And hundreds more Ethiopian troops were seen arriving in the Somali capital over the weekend.
With rotting bodies still lying in the streets on Monday, it was impossible to calculate an exact death toll from what the International Committee of the Red Cross called Mogadishu’s worst fighting in more than 15 years.
Somali reporters have seen scores of corpses, Ethiopia says it has killed 200 insurgents, and residents say they believe several hundred people — mainly civilians — have died.
Thousands of Somalis have been pouring out of the city, many piling possessions onto donkey-carts.
Diplomatic concern
The international community has reacted with horror to the latest flare-up in Somalia, but remains powerless to stop it.
A small African Union (AU) peacekeeping force of some 1 200 Ugandan soldiers has been caught in the crossfire, pinned down at strategic sites like the air and sea ports. It lost a soldier during a mortar attack on the presidential compound on Sunday.
Diplomatic efforts to halt the violence were being stepped up this week. The International Contact Group on Somalia, which includes the United States, European and African nations, was due to meet in Cairo.
And perhaps more significantly, African diplomats said there was talk of a possible meeting between the leaders of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Uganda to talk about Somalia.
Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi have been at bitter odds since a 1998 to 2000 border conflict. While Ethiopia supported the government in ousting Somali Islamists over the New Year, Eritrea was accused of arming the Islamists.
”This thing in Somalia cannot be stopped unless these guys stop their quarrel,” an African diplomat in the region said.
The Hawiye are demanding the United Nations, US, European Union and Arab League pressure Ethiopia to stop attacks.
While Addis Ababa seems determined to finish off the rebels, many experts say the attacks could have the opposite effect, turning Somalis further against their Christian-led neighbour, or drawing in foreign Muslim jihadists.
Despite the fighting, Somalia’s interim government remains confident a reconciliation meeting of elders, politicians and former warlords planned for April 16 will go ahead in the city.
The administration is the 14th attempt to restore central rule in Somalia since 1991, when the Horn of Africa nation slid into anarchy after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown. – Reuters