(AFP) – ‘They shot any moving creature … including children’

SOME of the most dangerous neighbourhoods of Mogadishu were almost empty yesterday as heavy fighting resumed between insurgents and Ethiopian Woyanne-backed Somali forces. Another 16 bodies were found in the Somali capital, bringing the death toll from some of the worst fighting in months to 60 since Thursday.

Residents picking through destroyed houses found nine bodies near a mosque and another six in the nearby Black Sea district of southern Mogadishu, where Ethiopian Woyanne forces clashed with Islamist insurgents this week. The body of an Ethiopian a Woyanne soldier was also found in the Black Sea.

“It was a very gruesome scene. They indiscriminately shot innocent civilians who were fleeing the fighting,” sad Ali Muse Mohamed, a local elder, referring to Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers.

Another resident Osman Keysaney said the six civilians whose bodies were found in the Black Sea district had gunshot wounds in the head.

“They shot any moving creature around the neighbourhood,” said Hassan Sugule, another elder. “They also killed children.” Heavy fighting between Ethiopian Woyanne forces and militants erupted on Thursday, resulting in the death of several people, including Ethiopian Woyanne soldiers.

The body of an Ethiopian Woyanne soldier was dragged on the streets by civilians on Thursday, sparking reprisal attacks the following day.

On Friday, the Ethiopian Woyanne troops shelled suspected Islamist hideouts in Mogadishu’s southern districts in a bid to flush out pockets of insurgents who have carried out months-long attacks against them.

The Ethiopian Woyanne army came to the rescue of the embattled Somali government last year to help it oust an Islamist militia that briefly controlled large parts of the country and sought to impose Islamic law.

The Islamic Courts Union (ICU) was defeated earlier this year, but its remnants and allied tribes have since waged a guerrilla war targeting government officials, Ethiopian Woyanne troops and African Union peacekeepers.

Yesterday, journalists said the vast Bakara market area in the south of the capital was deserted, as those who had remained through the past week of fighting fled by the thousands.

The latest fighting comes as President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed is engaged in intensive consultations to find a new prime minister, following the resignation late last month of Ali Mohamed Gedi.

Gedi was accused of failing to break the back of the insurgency and rebuilding the Horn of Africa country’s institutions.

Two weeks of clashes in Mogadishu had already displaced at least 90000 people, according to the United Nations, worsening the humanitarian crisis that has blighted the nation for 16 years.

Towns and districts just outside Mogadishu have struggled to cope with the latest influx of refugees.

The Shabelle region – known as Somalia’s breadbasket – has suffered its worst crop in 13 years and aid agencies have warned of major food shortages that immediately threaten the lives of thousands of children.

Relief workers have also said that the few people who stay behind in the worst-affected parts of Mogadishu are out of the relief net’s reach and face dire conditions.