MOGADISHU (AFP) — Insurgents fired a barrage of mortars into an Ethiopian Woyanne army camp in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday, triggering heavy fighting, residents said.
The clashes shattered a fortnight lull in the city after weeks of heavy fighting that had claimed dozens of lives, mainly of civilians, and displaced at least 200,000 people.
“About 10 mortar shells have landed in and around the pasta factory where the Ethiopian Woyanne forces are based,” said Hassan Abdullahi, a resident of northern Mogadishu Huriwa neighbourhood.
“This was followed by heavy gunfire between the rival sides.”
Another resident Mohamed Haji described the barrage as the heaviest mortar attack he had witnessed since the last round of heavy fighting almost a week ago.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Some 600,000 people have fled Mogadishu since February, bringing the total number of people displaced inside the country to a one million, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
An estimated 200,000 people were living rough in squalid camps along the road to Afgooye, 30 kilometres (18 miles) west of Mogadishu — a 50 percent increase over the past two weeks, the UNHCR said.
Aid workers were delivering supplies in Afgooye, but complained that fighting was preventing them from accessing civilians trapped in Mogadishu, where the government is battling a deadly insurgency.
Islamist militants who were ousted from much of the country early this years have been carrying out attacks against Ethiopian Woyanne forces, African Union peacekeepers and government targets.
The transitional government, riven by in-fighting, has been unable to exert control across the nation and some regions have declared independence.
On Thursday, President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed named a veteran law-enforcement and aid official as his new prime minister and tasked him restoring stability in one of the most anarchic city in the world.
4 thoughts on “Mortar barrage sparks Mogadishu clashes – AFP”
Bomb attack on Ethiopian vehicle in Mogadishu
Fri. November 23, 2007 01:19 pm
– By Mohamed Abdi Farah
SomaliNet) As the insurgents in the Somalia capital Mogadishu continue hit and run attacks and bombs against on what they called ‘the occupation forces’, a roadside bomb exploded on a military truck belonging to the Ethiopian troops near the presidential house in south of the city on Friday morning, witnesses said.
The explosion happened as a convoy carrying unspecified number of Ethiopian troops was passing around Florenza intersection in Wardhigley neighborhood, south of Mogadishu but no casualty was reported.
The Young Islamic Movement known as ‘Al-Shabab’ claimed the responsibility for the latest attack on the Ethiopian soldiers.
The Ethiopians cordoned off the area of the blast and began searching for suspects no one was arrested so far.
People still remaining in the volatile city of Mogadishu began to avoid from the areas occupied by the allied forces of Ethiopia and transitional federal government fearing to be caught by the crossfire following dozens of civilians killed recently in the fighting with the Islamic militants.
On Thursday, five people were killed others were wounded when the Ethiopian forces stationed in Suuqa-Xoolaha environ of Huriwa district, north of Mogadishu clashed with local insurgent groups.
The bodies of the dead people found in the area when the Ethiopian soldiers resumed to their base.
Unconfirmed reports say that all of the dead were civilians who caught in the gunfire.
Meanwhile, more than 60 Somali immigrants died and others were still missing when their boat capsized en route to Yemen as the Iranian based Press TV reported on Friday.
The Yemen coast guards rescued 25 people from drowning as the bodies of the dead immigrants were buried in mass graves, officials said.
Meles will never have a sleep while thousands of innocent people are being killed by Weyane troops as we speak.
the ethiopian who fought foolish war in somalia must get out. meles is trying to destabilize the whole region by US money and innocent ethiopian soldiers blood,no matter what you are trying you will never ever win somali peoples heart and mind because you are our sweared enemies and will never get any respect from any body specially from the horn of africa peoples by (being servant)associating with outside actors.
I think it is about time that the world face the music and understand that every thing need not be seen from the perspective of one country’s and only one country’s security and national interest. There is no cookie cutter political and security measure for every country and part of the world. UN has recently identified the atrocities being committed in Somali worse that Darfur. What is EU waiting for what is AU waiting for, What is Russia waiting for shouldn’t they come up with their own initiative and help this people get ride of the aggressor that is ravaging their country in the name of pacifying it and getting ride of Islamic hard liners, which by the way has been accepted by the Somali people.