Five killed in Somali violence

Monday, September 17, 2007

 

MOGADISHU (AFP) -  Five people have been killed in the latest violence in Somalia, including three in clashes between rival subclans south of Mogadishu, witnesses said.

 

Militiamen from rival subclans of the larger Habel-Gedir clan clashed in Merka port, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, killing three.

 

"The fighting has intensified and spread around several villages in the region. So far, three people have been killed and six others wounded," said Merka resident Mohamed Haji Lunge.

 

Elder Haji Hussein Adan confirmed the casualties, and said the skirmishes were sparked by Sunday's killing of Merka deputy police commander Muhamud Salat Sanjaebil, who belongs to one of the subclans.

 

Two others were killed in overnight renewed clashes between Somaliland and Puntland, two regions in northern Somalia, which have been at loggerheads over the precise path of their frontier.

 

The violence broke out overnight in Sool region, about 900 kilometers northwest of Mogadishu, with both sides exchanging heavy artillery fire.

 

The clashes pitted government troops from Somaliland, which considers itself an independent state, against fighters loyal to the regional government in neighboring Puntland.

 

"So far, two people have been killed, and there is sporadic artillery exchanges between the two forces," a Puntland local authority official said from the port town of Bosaso. There were reports of injuries.

 

"It started last night, and resumed this morning, and there is still sporadic artillery fire in the area," Abdurasak Hassan Ibrahim, a resident of the nearby Luq-qorow village, said by satellite phone.

 

In port town of Kismayo, meanwhile, 500 kilometers south of Mogadishu, authorities executed a man convicted of killing a businessman from the same clan, an elder said.

 

Years of political turmoil exploded into a drive that ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, touching off a deadly power struggle that has defied numerous efforts to end.

 

The Ethiopian-backed government is currently battling an insurgency in Mogadishu, which it blames on an Islamist movement that was expelled from the country's south and central regions, early this year.

 

Joint Ethiopia and Somali forces, and some 1,500 African Union peacekeepers from Uganda have failed to stem the insurgency that has paralyzed the government's bid to expand its tenuous grip beyond a few pockets in southern Somalia.

 

The rest of the countryside is under the control of clan factions.

 

Also Monday, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged the Somali government to release Mohamed Hussein Jimaale, a Mogadishu-based correspondent for news Web site Puntlandpost, who has been in police custody since September 12.

 

In addition, the RSF condemned Somali police for storming Shabelle media offices in Mogadishu, and briefly detaining 14 journalists and five support staff Saturday.

 

On Sunday, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and his Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi signed an accord with prominent Somali clan elders, under the aegis of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

 

The accord, whose precise details have not been released, follow up on a government-sponsored reconciliation conference that ended August 30 without an agreement.

 

The Mogadishu talks were boycotted by the Islamist-led opposition, who held their own conference in Ethiopia's archfoe Eritrea, last week. They agreed on a united front to drive out Ethiopia troops deployed in the capital to bolster the government.

 

Source: AFP, Sept 17, 2007