More than a dozen gunmen attacked two police bases in Mogadishu early on Wednesday with rocket-propelled grenades, sparking fire fights that killed at least two people, witnesses and police said. The attacks came just hours after a land mine exploded on Tuesday night.
Ethiopia reopened its embassy in Somalia on Sunday for the first time since the countries fought a war 30 years ago, strengthening the nations’ ties as Somalia tries to stave off an Islamic insurgency. Ethiopia, the region’s military powerhouse, has sent troops to protect this chaotic nation’s fragile government.
All 11 crew members on a cargo plane that was shot down by a missile during take-off were killed, officials said on Saturday. The downing of the plane on Friday, after it had delivered equipment for Ugandan peacekeepers in Mogadishu, came at the end of a particularly violent week in the Somali capital.
Somali insurgents battled Ethiopian and government troops with mortar and artillery fire, killing two people and wounding at least 16 others who were caught in the crossfire. Mortar attacks were launched against four separate areas in the capital on Sunday, targeting the seaport and former intelligence headquarters.
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/ 7 February 2007
A cholera outbreak in Somalia has killed more than 115 people and hospitalised 724, medical officers said on Wednesday, while the capital was hit by more violence. Tests conducted by international medical aid group Médecins sans Frontières confirmed the cholera outbreak in towns along the Shabelle River.
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/ 25 December 2006
Ethiopian warplanes bombed the main airport in Mogadishu on Monday, wounding one person in Somalia’s capital where Islamists have their stronghold, an airport official said. Somalia’s encircled interim government closed all land, air and sea borders. On Sunday, Ethiopia’s prime minister declared that Ethiopia was at war with Somalia’s Islamic movement.
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/ 8 December 2006
Ethiopian troops have shelled a central Somalia town, two days after the United Nations passed a resolution to ease an arms embargo on Somalia, an official of the country’s Islamic courts said on Friday.
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/ 29 September 2006
Islamic militants arrested three journalists in southern Somalia on Friday morning, after shutting down a prominent radio station they accused of broadcasting stories critical of their organisation. Militiamen arrested the reporters for Radio HornAfrik and were holding them at a police station for questioning, said Sheikh Ibrahim Mohamed, a spokesperson for the Islamic courts in Kismayo.
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/ 13 September 2006
Militiamen loyal to the fundamentalist Islamic group that appears determined to rule Somalia are advancing on one of the last-remaining commercial ports outside of their control, a European Union official said on Wednesday. Several hundred militiamen loyal to the Islamic group have been seen travelling to Kismayo, about 500km south of the capital, Mogadishu, the official and witnesses said.
Somalia’s government was trying to regroup on Wednesday after nearly 30 lawmakers resigned in less than a week, saying the virtually powerless administration has failed to reconcile with Islamic militants who have taken over the capital. ”The prime minister has failed to talk to the Islamic union,” said Hasaan Abshir Farah, an ex-minister.