A roadside bomb killed two soldiers in Somalia’s chaotic capital, Mogadishu, on Thursday, witnesses said, just hours after two aid workers were shot dead in an overnight attack in the north of the country. One woman at the scene of the blast said a vehicle carrying troops through a northern district of the city was lifted into the air by the powerful explosion.
Somalia’s trade minister and former defence minister escaped assassination attempts, but two others were killed in the latest Iraq-style guerrilla attacks on government targets, witnesses said on Wednesday. A roadside bomb hit Trade Minister Abdullahi Ahmed Afrah’s convoy late on Tuesday in a busy north Mogadishu street.
A roadside bomb explosion in the Somali capital on Tuesday killed five women and a man and wounded nine other people, witnesses said. The United States, meanwhile, called for the immediate release of opposition leaders arrested by the Somali government.
A suspected bomb blast killed five women outside a busy market in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Tuesday, witnesses said. Residents said an explosive device was apparently detonated by the burning of garbage in the city’s central Howlwadag area.
A Somali government soldier opened fire on Monday at a crowd clamouring for food aid in Mogadishu and killed at least three people, witnesses said. Three others were seriously wounded when the soldier fired in an apparent attempt to disperse a multitude trying to barge into a local authority building.
Somali authorities have announced plans to impose a curfew on the capital, Mogadishu, where at least five people were killed on Thursday in the latest violence to undermine government attempts to restore law. Two police officers died when hand grenades were lobbed at officers patrolling Mogadishu’s Bakara market, witnesses said.
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.
Somalia’s presidential spokesperson was shot twice at close range in the latest assassination attempt on government officials in the Horn of Africa nation, officials said on Tuesday. ”He was shot in the neck and near the jaw,” a security source told Reuters. ”I think the gunman was aiming for the head.”
A large explosion struck Mogadishu on Monday near the venue where a national reconciliation conference is due to be held next month. ”I heard a loud explosion that shook the whole ground near me. I saw a burning car thrown high in the sky by the intesity of the explosion,” witness Abdullahi Yere told Reuters.
A grenade attack killed four people and wounded six others watching a foreign film in the western town of Baidoa in the latest flare-up in chaotic Somalia, residents said on Friday. Militant Islamists, who have been fighting the Horn of Africa nation’s government, are opposed to Western and Indian films.
Organisers of a national reconciliation conference in Somalia due to start on Thursday have postponed it for one month in another blow to peace efforts in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation. ”The National Reconciliation Committee has decided to postpone the conference …,” committee chairperson Ali Mahdi Mohamed said.
Hundreds of Ethiopian troops trying to protect Somalia’s fragile government went house-to-house searching for weapons on Wednesday, a daunting task in a city teeming with firearms. Several people were arrested and accused of being linked to an insurgency blamed for a string of deadly suicide bombs and other attacks.
Somalia’s transitional government on Wednesday ordered three local private radio stations to stop broadcasting from the country’s capital. Mogadishu-based stations Shabelle Radio, Radio HornAfrik and Voice of the Qur’an radio stopped broadcasting early on Wednesday afternoon, a media correspondent said.
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.
A peace conference planned for next month to help Somalia heal after more than 16 years of chaos is in jeopardy because of lack of funds, the chairperson of the talks said on Tuesday. The conference, already delayed twice because of violence in the capital, Mogadishu, has been scheduled for June 16.
The Somali president has warned that ”terrorists” were threatening his shattered country’s security and slammed international donors for failing to help as promised, in an interview with Agence France-Presse. An Ethiopian-backed government offensive in Mogadishu last month ended weeks of clashes with Islamist-led insurgents.
A remote-controlled bomb killed four African Union peacekeepers from Uganda and wounded five more when it hit their convoy in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, on Wednesday, the AU said. It was the first attack of its kind against the mission’s troops, which previously had only been shot at, said an AU security source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Gunmen attacked a United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) office in Mogadishu and wounded a guard in the latest strike near the world body’s facilities in Somalia since the weekend, a WHO official said on Tuesday. The Monday attack came just two days after UN aid chief John Holmes cut short his visit.
The slogan ”no weapons” runs along the main wall of the Hamar boarding school in Mogadishu, giving it the tough air of a military camp. But inside the atmosphere is studious, highlighting a yen for learning that has survived more than a decade of bloodletting in this Horn of Africa nation.
Somali security forces are seizing and even burning Muslim women’s veils to stop Islamist insurgents from disguising themselves for attacks, authorities and witnesses said on Wednesday. The crackdown on veils is a highly symbolic turnaround for Mogadishu after Islamist leaders had instructed women to wear them.
Thousands poured back into Mogadishu on Monday after a four-day calm, but an African Union commander warned that fighting could erupt again and a humanitarian crisis still looms. ”It’s not yet a time to celebrate,” said AU commander Lieutenant Katumba Wamala.
Gunmen plundered computers and bags of sugar from a Coca-Cola plant in Mogadishu on Friday during a lull in fighting between allied Somali-Ethiopian troops and insurgents, a local manager said. The unidentified group, who were wearing uniforms, commandeered 12 trucks to drive away the booty seized in the overnight looting spree.
Ethiopia forces on Friday tightened the noose around the calm Somali capital, Mogadishu, a day after taking control of insurgent strongholds after some of the heaviest fighting in the city’s history, residents said.
Ethiopian tanks supporting the Somali government pounded insurgent positions in Mogadishu on Thursday and Somalia’s prime minister declared significant gains after a nine-day offensive. Following the latest attack, Ali Mohamed Gedi said ”most fighting” had ended and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops were clearing ”pockets of resistance”.
Shells and machinegun fire pounded the Somali capital on Thursday, setting buildings on fire, as Ethiopians forces and Islamist guerrillas battled for the ninth day. After a night of sporadic shelling, columns of Ethiopian tanks ploughed into northern Mogadishu, firing mortars and rockets on to suspected rebel positions.
Somalia’s government is holding up vital aid to tens of thousands of people as car bombs and street fighting brought the death toll to nearly 1Â 500 in less than a month, sending the country lurching toward catastrophe, diplomats and witnesses warned.
Shelling and artillery fire shook northern Mogadishu on Tuesday, the seventh day of fighting between allied Somali-Ethiopian forces and Islamist gunmen that has killed hundreds of people. The interim government has said the offensive will continue until it wipes out an insurgency frustrating its attempt to restore central rule.
Heavy shelling shook the Somali capital on Monday as Ethiopian forces battled Islamist insurgents for the sixth straight day. After a night of sporadic fire, heavy explosions hit northern Mogadishu’s districts, where rival sides exchanged machine-gun fire, mortars and anti-aircraft artillery, residents said.
Rotting corpses lay in the open and explosions shook Mogadishu on Sunday for a fifth day of battles between insurgents and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops that have killed at least 230 people, locals said. In an ever-growing exodus, hundreds more Somalis trudged out of Mogadishu on Sunday.
Battles raged across Mogadishu on Saturday, killing at least 73 people and swelling a vast exodus from an escalating war between militant Islamists and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops, witnesses said. Residents and medical staff interviewed by the media confirmed the latest deaths on Saturday — adding to an estimated 131 others from the previous three days’ violence.
Shells rocked Mogadishu through the night and into Saturday morning, killing more civilians and sending hundreds more fleeing the Somali capital in the biggest mass exodus since the 1991 fall of a dictator. ”There are a lot of deaths. I am carrying the bodies of two family members into my car now,” one distraught resident, who asked not to give his name, told Reuters.
Sporadic shelling and gunfire shook Mogadishu on Friday, but Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf downplayed this week’s violence, which residents say has killed at least 30 people and wounded scores more. Bloodied patients screamed and doctors struggled to tend to the wounded crammed into Mogadishu’s Madina Hospital after four days of clashes.