Sporadic shelling and gunfire shook Mogadishu on Friday as a massive exodus from the Somali capital gathered pace from a week of battles residents say has killed at least 30 people and probably far more.
The United Nations said 321,000 people - nearly a third of the city's population - had fled since February in refugee scenes not seen in Somalia since the fall of a dictator in 1991. Parts of the city looked like a ghost town of empty streets and shattered buildings. In provinces round Mogadishu, tens of thousands of refugees waited under trees or beside roads in what aid groups say is a looming humanitarian disaster.
At packed Mogadishu hospitals, bloodied patients screamed and doctors struggled to tend to scores of wounded after four days of clashes between troops and insurgents. Soldiers blocked off roads to military bases after a suicide attacker blew himself up on Thursday at a former prison now used by the interim Somali government's Ethiopian military allies.
At least 21 people, mainly civilians, died in that blast and other fighting across the city on Thursday. Nine also died on Tuesday and Wednesday, though locals say the real death-toll - including an unknown number of fighters - must be much higher.
Residents hardened by 16 years of lawlessness say violence is getting worse in Mogadishu, where Islamist insurgents and some disgruntled Hawiye clan fighters are battling government forces and Ethiopian soldiers. African Union peacekeepers have failed to stem the violence, and have also been targeted. Hundreds more Somalis were fleeing Mogadishu by foot, donkey, cart and vehicle on Friday, Reuters witnesses said.
President Abdullahi Yusuf tried to put a brave face on the situation. "I would say the problem of Somalia is slowly but surely ending," he said in Ethiopia where he was holding talks with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
Comments
Comments are closed.