At least 1 086 people were killed in four days of recent heavy clashes between Ethiopian forces and Islamist fighters backed by clan militia in Mogadishu, elders from the Hawiye clan said on Tuesday.
The fighting, which erupted late last month when Ethiopian forces launched a bloody crackdown on suspected insurgents in the Somali capital, also left 4 334 people wounded, Hussein Aden Korgab, the Hawiye clan spokesperson, told Agence France-Presse.
”Our assessment team counted 1 086 people killed … [and] 4 334 wounded,” he said.
Kograb said the death toll was collected by a clan panel that was formed to hold talks with the Ethiopian forces after active fighting subsided.
”We assessed battlefields, spoke to civilians, visited hospitals and areas that were affected by the clashes,” he said when asked how the figure was reached.
Without giving specifics he added that damage to property by the heavy fighting was an estimated ”$1,5-billion”.
Humanitarian groups have described the clashes, most of which occurred in around the stadium area and Al-Kamin neighbourhood in southern Mogadishu, as the worst in 15 years.
A local rights group, which compiled initial figures from hospitals and witnesses, said 381 civilians had died and 565 were wounded in the four days of clashes between March 29 and April 1.
Most of the dead have been buried.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said around 124 000 people, mostly civilians, have fled the blood-soaked capital in the past two months as a result of the violence.
Last week, the European Union envoy to Nairobi, Eric van der Linden, said he had asked Brussels to investigate whether Ethiopian-Somali forces committed war crimes in the bloody crackdown.
Somalia has lacked an effective central government since the ousting of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 touched off a bloody power struggle that exploded into inter-clan warfare.
More than 14 attempts to restore a functional government in Somalia have since failed. ‒ Sapa-AFP