Clashes in Somalia kill 53 and dozens wounded

(Somalia, July 02,  2008 Ceegaag Online)

At least 53 people were killed in Somalia when Islamist insurgents clashed with Ethiopian troops and Ugandan peacekeepers in separate battles, a human rights group said on Wednesday.

The latest flare-up in the 18-month-old insurgency came a week before a U.N.-mediated ceasefire between an Islamist faction and the interim Somali government is to take effect.

The interim government and Ethiopia both declined comment on the clashes or any casualties.

Hardline Islamists have been waging an almost daily Iraq-style insurgency against the interim government and its Ethiopian backers since they were ousted from Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia in 2007.

"A total of 47 people died yesterday in central Somalia and in the capital Mogadishu last night,"

Ahmed Sudan, chairman of the Mogadishu-based Elman Peace and Human Rights organisation, told Reuters 47 people were killed on Tuesday and overnight in central Somalia and Mogadishu. He said six more had since died of their wounds.

Sudan said 11 civilians were killed when Islamists ambushed Ethiopian troops and Ugandan peacekeepers in the capital Mogadishu overnight, while dozens of others were wounded.

Another 36 people, including civilians and insurgents, were killed when rebels struck an Ethiopian troop convoy in Mataban, 410 km (255 miles) north of the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Among the dead on Tuesday were Moalim Farhan, commander of the militant group that attacked the convoy, and Abdullahi Ali Farah, also known as Sheikh Aspro, a spokesman for the insurgents told Reuters.

Aspro is deputy to hardline Islamist Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is on U.S. and U.N. lists of al Qaeda associates.

"We buried 27 Somalis," shopkeeper Ismail Olad told Reuters from Mataban. "We do not know the number of Ethiopians killed."

Somalia has been mired in anarchy, functioning without a central government since the fall of a dictator in 1991. Piracy has become an increasing problem in its waters.

A Somali ship was hijacked on Sunday near El-Ma'an sea port, close to Mogadishu.

"The ship, MV Solsea, was on its way to tow another Somali fishing vessel which developed mechanical problems near El-Ma'an when pirates seized it," Andrew Mwangura, director of the Kenyan Seafarers Assistance Programme, told Reuters.

Three Germans are still held captive by Somali pirates in a forest near the Gulf of Aden in the northern Puntland region, while five Somalis working for an Italian aid agency, who were seized on Monday, are still in captivity.

The U.N. children's agency UNICEF called on the world to act to avert famine in Somalia and other parts of the Horn of Africa. It said acute malnutrition rates in Somalia were now above 20 percent.

Source: Reuters

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