Two United Nations aid workers, a Briton and a Kenyan, were abducted by armed men Tuesday in southern Somalia, the latest in a string of attacks targeting humanitarian operations. "We don’t have much information for the moment, but what I can say is that two foreign aid workers … were intercepted," local district commissioner Ibrahim Noleye said.
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/ 13 December 2007
At least 13 Somalis died on Thursday, including 11 in almost simultaneous mortar blasts, as Mogadishu’s civilian population continued to bear the brunt of relentless fighting. ”The explosion cut people into pieces and splashed blood on the market stalls. We’re not sure where the mortar came from,” said a witness.
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/ 14 November 2007
More than 170 000 people have fled fighting in Somalia’s capital in the past two weeks, worsening a humanitarian crisis already facing the country. With near-daily clashes between Ethiopia-Somali forces and Islamist rebels, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it was doling out its last stocks from Mogadishu to the displaced.
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/ 10 November 2007
Ethiopian troops shelled suspected Islamist hideouts on Friday in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, where some of the worst clashes in months have left at least 43 dead in two days, many of them civilians. The escalating violence came as the Ethiopian army tried to flush out pockets of insurgents in southern districts of the Somali capital.
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/ 30 October 2007
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed called crisis talks on Tuesday to find a new prime minister as the country’s shaky government faced a mounting challenge from Islamist rebels.
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/ 23 October 2007
Somali authorities on Tuesday released the local head of the World Food Programme, who was seized nearly a week ago when government forces stormed a United Nations compound in Mogadishu. "He is safely back in the office. He was brought by some government officers as well as local UN staffers," a UN official said in Mogadishu.
Mogadishu traders were dejectedly sifting through the charred remains of their shops on Thursday after a huge fire destroyed one-third of Bakara market, once the Somali capital’s main business hub. The vast market area and its intricate network of alleyways were completely disfigured by the fire.
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/ 23 September 2007
The United Nations’s new envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, held his first talks in Mogadishu on Saturday with the embattled transitional government’s top leaders, the UN said. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s special representative discussed the results of a recent national reconciliation congress.
A Somali reconciliation conference aimed at ending 16 years of war and attended by thousands was due to wrap up on Thursday after six weeks of talks that were marred by relentless violence in Mogadishu. ”It was the first time such a large number of Somali delegates in favour of peace met,” said clan elder Bile Mohamud Qabowsade.
A wave of attacks killed a civilian and wounded five others in the Somali capital on Saturday, witnesses said, as Islamists vowed to wage a stronger insurgency to drive Ethiopian forces out. Insurgents overnight fired grenades at the Hotel Lafweyn where Somali National Reconciliation Congress delegates are staying.