(AFP) Ethiopian Woyanne forces opened fire on demonstrators protesting against their presence in Mogadishu Sunday, killing three, witnesses said, as fresh violence engulfed the Somali capital.
At the same time, Somali authorities urged civilians to evacuate from southern Mogadishu, vowing to widen crackdowns to areas believed to be rebel hideouts.
A crowd of hundreds of protestors chanting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) and wielding sticks had been marching in the streets of southern Mogadishu in reaction to the latest Ethiopian Woyanne crackdown on the insurgency when the deaths occurred.
“A young boy and two other civilians died when Ethiopian Woyanne forces in Suqaholaha area opened fire on us. We were demonstrating against them and they opened fire to disperse the crowd,” witness Hussein Adan Suley told AFP.
“We ran away when the Ethiopians Woyanne opened fire. I know that one child was killed,” said another protestor, Asma Wardhere.
There was no immediate confirmation of the casualty toll from medical sources following the demonstration, the first to be staged by disgruntled Mogadishu residents in several months.
But a police official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that three people had died during the demonstration, and added that two other people had been killed Sunday in separate incidents.
One man was shot dead in the volatile Bakara market area. Relatives said the motives of the killing were not known.
Police also said that one of their members was killed but declined to reveal the location and circumstances of the incident.
Demonstrators razed a police station on Sunday, the second to be burnt down in southern Mogadishu in two days, after terrified police fled, the city’s mayor Mohamed Omar Habeb told a press conference.
“They burnt down the second police station today,” he told a press conference.
“We call upon civilians in Bakara to move from that area because we will go after the insurgents in that area,” said Habeb, referring to the volatile Bakara market in southern Mogadishu.
For the second day, violence pitting joint Ethiopia Woyanne-Somali forces against Islamist insurgents rocked the city in broad daylight.
On Saturday, Ethiopian Woyanne troops fanned out into the streets following fighting near the stadium that left at least six civilians dead.
The latest clashes prompted a fresh wave of displacement, as civilians could be seen across entire neighbourhoods loading pick-up trucks and donkey carts with household items.
“No one can endure what is happening in Mogadishu, it’s non-stop violence and it’s taking hundreds of lives every week,” said southern Mogadishu resident Abdurahman Nure, speaking to AFP from the back of a Land Cruiser as he left the city with his children.
The Ethiopian Woyanne army came to the rescue of Somalia’s embattled government last year to defeat fundamentalist Islamist militia that briefly controlled large parts of the country.
Since the Islamists were ousted earlier this year, its militia and allied tribal fighters have waged a guerrilla-style war, carrying out hit-and-run attacks, mainly by night and in Mogadishu.
“The insurgents are attacking the government and Ethiopia Woyanne forces almost everyday now,” said Fartun Adan Mohamed, a single mother of three while fleeing.
“Whenever this happens, we civilians are the target for the Ethiopian Woyanne army as well as the Somali forces, so fleeing is the only option we have,” she said.
Residents said daytime clashes are making the city more dangerous than before.
Mogadishu residents have been fleeing the city in several major waves in recent months, arriving in droves in neighbouring settlements plagued by dire food shortages.
While the capital was engulfed in violence, the country’s transitional government was also on the brink of disintegration.
In Baidoa township, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) from Mogadishu, President Abdullahi Ahmed Yusuf was pushing parliament to oust Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi.
The two leaders are from the country’s two main and rival tribes and the president accuses his premier of failing to bring an end to the insurgency.