By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Heavy fighting between Somali transitional government forces and rebel Al Shabaab militants have left at least six people dead and another 12 injured in Mogadishu.
The fighting broke out Saturday afternoon when heavily armed Al Shabaab militant fighters carried out attacks on government bases in the Mogadishu districts of Bondhere and Abdiaziz.
Residents said that most of the people who were killed and wounded were civilians. Those people who were killed died when mortar shelling and heavy weapons artillery landed in their Mogadishu neighborhoods.
The Somali capital has been ravaged in recent months by a string of deadly clashes between the Al Shabaab rebels and government troops backed by African Union troops. The Al Shabaab militants are intent on overthrowing the fragile UN-backed transitional government. Al-Shabaab and its allies currently control most of southern and central Somalia, while the government, helped by the AU force, just runs parts of Mogadishu.
Somalia has been crippled by over 18 years of civil war and has had no functioning government since the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991. The years of fighting and anarchy have left some three million people, more than half of the country’s population, dependent on humanitarian aid, with nearly 300,000 refugees crammed into a few square kilometers at the Dadaab camp in northeastern Kenya alone.
Al-Shabaab wants foreign peacekeepers out of the country while Somalia’s transitional government wants more foreign support. Should the AU forces leave, thousands of Somali’s will suffer with out the AU’s humanitarian aid. Should the AU forces stay and maintain their foreign fortification against the Al-Shabaab insurgents, Al-Shabaab will continue its attacks.
For more information, please see:
Garowe Online – Civilians Killed in Fresh Mogadishu Clashes – 8 November 2009
PressTv – At least 6 dead in latest clashes in Mogadishu – 8 November 2009
Shabelle Media Network – Fighting Kills Two, Wounds Five Others in North Mogadishu – 7 November 2009
