/ 20 April 2008

Day of violence in Mogadishu leaves 81 dead, says activist

Clashes between insurgents and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops killed 81 people in Mogadishu in one day, a prominent local human rights group said on Sunday.

”Eighty-one people were killed and 119 more were wounded in the violence in Mogadishu since Saturday,” Sudan Ali Ahmed, chairperson of the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation, told Reuters by telephone.

He said he had collated the death toll from local hospitals and undercover activists operating in the capital, which has been rocked by heavy exchanges of mortar fire between Islamist-led insurgents and government troops.

Residents in the lawless capital said the clashes were some of the worst in months.

”We condemn the unceasing fighting and the use of artillery … We also condemn the opposition groups who fight among the civilians and use them as [human] shields,” Ahmed added. — Reuters