By Carolyn Abdenour
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
MOGADISHU, Somalia – On 11 October, government forces and the militant Islamist group al-Shabab engaged in heavy fighting in the Hamar-weyne district of Mogadishu. This violence forced a hospital to close and residents to flee the country’s capital.
The residents feared renewed warfare in northern Mogadishu, where Islamist militants are taking position. They packed up their household goods and left on donkey-powered carts with their children.
On Wednesday, 12 October, the residents reported Al-Shabab fighters were digging new trenches. These new trenches coupled with the movement of 9,000 African Union (“AU”) forces into these neighborhoods signify fighting may break out soon.
At least twenty civilians and one African Union soldier died during fighting that ignited over the weekend and ended on Monday, 10 October. Director of Mogadishu’s ambulance service said that because the ambulances could not reach people, several people bled to death.
The day the violence ended, Dr. Ahmed Mohammed reported one staff member died during a shelling of the maternity ward operated by SOS children. The violence also forced patients and staff to flee the hospital. Forty women, including women who just gave birth by caesarean section, and children who were treated for severe malnutrition fled the hospital. Dr. Mohammed fears some of the children may have died because they could not receive treatment. He added that the hospital closed for the first time in twenty-five years on Monday.
Dr. Mohammed commented, “I am pleading and I am begging both parties . . . to leave the place and allow people to come back and get the assistance from the hospital.”
On Monday, the AU forces also drove al-Shabab militants from the north of Mogadishu, their last stronghold. AU force spokesperson Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda stated, “It has been a big achievement to remove [al-Shabab] from the city, and put an end to the fighting that disrupted so many lives.”
Last week, al-Shabab killed over eighty people during a bomb attack in Mogadishu. Since August when al-Shabab said it would withdraw from Mogadishu after the AU forces sustained an offense, it increased its guerrilla tactics to fight Somalia’s weak government.
Maj. Gen. Fred Mugisha, the AU force commander, reported some al-Shabab militants still pose a threat in northern Mogadishu. He said al-Shabab “will be judged harshly for the lives they take and the atrocities they commit. We need the support of all peace-loving Somalis to help us restore peace and stability to the city.”
For further information, please see:
San Francisco Chronicle – Packing Up Home: Mogadishu Residents Flee Warfare – 12 Oct 2011
Mareeg – Government Soldiers Exchange Fires in the Somali Capital, Mogadishu – 12 Oct 2011
BBC – Shelling shuts Mogadishu Hospital – 11 Oct 2011
eTaiwan News – Somalia: 8 Die in Battle Between Gov’t, Militants – 11 Oct 2011
