Mustafa Haji Abdinur
Mon, 12 Feb 2007
There was heavy shelling near the Villa Somalia residence of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed in southern Mogadishu, where artillery fire lit up the night sky.
At least two people were killed in the attacks that demolished residential houses.
People fled the southern Mogadishu suburbs that came under attack with many leaving the capital altogether.
"We have been expecting peace and prosperity after the past 16 years but not flames of gunfire and fresh bloodshed," said southern Mogadishu resident, Abdullahi Sheikh Hassan.
"We have to look for safety for ourselves and for our children," he added.
Traumatised residents
Other battle-weary residents echoed similar views after the shelling.
"A family was sleeping when a house was blown up by a heavy shell, I cannot tell what kind of weapon it was but it destroyed the house, killing a father and his son," said Jeri Hassan, a neighbour of one of the houses attacked.
Witnesses said gunmen also fired grenades into Madina police station in the capital, triggering a gun battle.
Attacks have steadily intensified since joint Somali-Ethiopian forces ousted an Islamist movement from the capital last month.
The new assault came hours after a bomb exploded in the southern port of Kismayo on Sunday, about 500 kilometres south of Mogadishu, killing four people and injuring several others.
Among the injured was the recently appointed Somali military chief General Adbi Mohamed, who was addressing scores of residents.
Country threatening to slide back to war
With Somalia dangerously teetering between a slide back to war or limping forward towards efforts to build a functioning state after more than a decade of chaos, the international community is struggling to raise funds and troops for a peacekeeping force.
The African Union has managed to raise half of the required 8000 peacekeepers expected to be deployed to bolster the Yusuf's feeble government.
The AU Commission met in Addis Ababa on Monday to discuss the "speedy" deployment of the badly needed force.
The Somali government is based in the backwater town of Baidoa, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) north of Mogadishu.
Yusuf, a former warlord, and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi have failed to make good their pledge of relocating to the capital, one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
The defeated Islamists have vowed to attack and kill peacekeepers, a spectre that dampens hopes of an international deployment, which has been delayed since 2005 for fear of further confrontation and insufficient funds.
Patchwork of fiefdoms
A previous 1993-1995 peace mission ended disastrously after UN and US troops fled the country, paving the way for the rise of warlords who sub-divided the nation into a patchwork of fiefdoms.
Though the warlords were defeated by the Islamists in June, they have been regrouping in the capital while maintaining a low profile.
In addition, the surging violence calls into question Yusuf's pledge to convene a national reconciliation conference in a bid to end the conflict.
Somalia, home to 10 million people, has had no effective central authority since the 1991 ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Since then, more than 14 internationally-backed attempts to restore a functional government have failed, compounding the misery caused by numerous natural disasters.
Source: AFP, Feb 12, 2007