Saturday, April 21, 2007
Ethiopian forces fired mortar shells and rockets from the presidential palace in southern Mogadishu at several insurgents hideouts, sparking a volley of retaliatory fire from insurgents.
Islamist insurgents and some of Mogadishu's clan warlords have vowed to oust the Ethiopians who helped the UN-backed transitional government in January to expel the Somali Council of Islamic Courts from the city last year.
The rivals exchanged heavy machinegun fire in the northern Fagah district and areas near the main Bakara market.
There was sporadic shelling in several districts overnight, but casualty figures could not be established, residents said.
"The Ethiopian forces are shelling Bakara market, mortars are landing everywhere and at this moment, we do not know what to do," said Hashim Ali Mohamed, who lives in southern Mogadishu.
The United Nations said at least 321,000 people had fled the city since February, one of the largest exodus from the seaside capital since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.
The United Nations warned on Friday of a humanitarian catastrophe with corpses left rotting in the streets, where rival fighters continued pounding each other with heavy artillery.
Local human rights groups said the latest fighting has killed at least 113 civilians and wounded 229 others in three days of clashes and warned that the toll could rise dramatically if a truce was not reached.
Some 1500 African Union peacekeepers from Uganda deployed in Mogadishu since early March have failed to stem the surge in violence. They have instead taken positions in the main airport, sea port, presidential palace and a key access road to the airport.
The Ugandans are an advance contingent of about 8000 peacekeepers the pan-African body plans to deploy in Somalia to help President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed expand his tenuous grip on the country.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon pressed for world support for African peacekeepers but warned that pursuing military solutions in Mogadishu was likely to be "counter-productive."
Source: AFP, April 21, 2007