/ 20 May 2009

Thousands of Somalis flee fighting in Mogadishu

More than 43 000 civilians have fled fierce fighting between insurgents and government forces in the Somali capital Mogadishu over the past 12 days, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Wednesday.

Civilians have been caught in the crossfire as the warring parties battle with mortars and automatic weapons in the north of the city. About 200 have died and more than 500 have been injured since the latest battles began.

The streets of north Mogadishu are empty, witnesses say, save for Islamist insurgents taking up positions to attack embattled pro-government militias.

More shelling took place overnight in residential areas, with the apparent target African Union (AU) peacekeeping bases.

Witnesses said insurgents attacked Jaale Siad Academy and the former Somali National University, which both house Burundian peacekeepers. At least three civilians, including a young boy, were believed to have been killed.

”A six-year-old child died after stray bullet hit him on the head,” Jamal Ibrahim, a resident in the area, told the German Press Agency dpa. ”Four other civilians were wounded when shell slammed into their home.”

Insurgent groups al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam launched the major offensive in an attempt to push out the weak government of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a moderate Islamist who once worked alongside the insurgents when the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) briefly ruled Somalia in 2006.

Sheik Sharif’s government, propped up by 4 300 AU peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi, controls only small sections of Mogadishu, while the insurgents hold sway across much of Southern and Central Somalia.

Al-Shabaab on Sunday took control of the strategic town of Jowhar, 90km north of Mogadishu, while allied group Hizbul Islam on Monday seized another town near the city.

The government received a boost on Sunday, however, when a leader of a faction of Hizbul Islam defected to the government side with his militia.

Sheikh Sharif has implemented sharia, or Islamic law, and has been attempting to build bridges with the warring groups. However, the insurgents say he is too close to the West.

The president came to power earlier this year as part of a UN-backed peace process.

The insurgency, which came after Ethiopian forces invaded in late 2006 to kick out the ICU, has claimed the lives of about 16 000 people, mainly civilians.

The resultant insecurity has helped feed an explosion of piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

Ethiopia pulled out in January 2009, but in recent days there have been reports that its troops have once again crossed the Somali border.

Somalia has been embroiled in chaos since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, and is widely regarded as a failed state. — Sapa-dpa