Breath in Mogadishu Battle, More to Come

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

Date: 15 Mar 2010


NAIROBI, 15 March 2010 (IRIN) - Five days of fighting in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, have left residents without food, cut off from their homes and unable to bury their dead, civil society leaders in the city said.

"We cannot go to some of the worst-affected areas and for all we know people may be buried under the rubble of what used to be their homes," Asha Sha'ur, a civil society activist, told IRIN. The fighting had displaced hundreds of families, she added.

In many areas of the city, people were unable to access their homes or even bury their dead. The fighting had also cut off aid deliveries.

"What little assistance that used to come in is no longer there, so they [civilians] are on their own," Sha'ur added. "It is a tragedy but no one seems to care. Imagine people with small children unable to go out and buy food or milk."

Ali Sheikh Yassin, deputy chairman of the Mogadishu-based Elman Human Rights Organization (EHRO), told IRIN the fighting between government troops and insurgent which began on 9 March "had been the most intense since May 2009".

Local sources estimate that more than 100 people had died before relative calm returned to the city on 15 March. "I would say this was the worst [fighting]," Yassin told IRIN.

Some residents, he added, had ventured out of their homes on 15 March to assess the damage and bury their dead.

"There is a feeling among the population that this is not the end and worse is yet to come," he said. Both sides, he explained, were mobilizing, with tanks belonging to the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission (AMISOM) dotting the city.

A medical source said the hospitals had been inundated. "We are barely coping," she told IRIN. "When you think there are no more, more are brought in."

On the move

The fighting, between AMISOM-backed government forces and the Islamist group Al-Shabab, broke out when Al-Shabab fighters attacked government positions in north Mogadishu, a local journalist told IRIN.

"By Friday [12 March], the fighting had spread to most parts of north Mogadishu. The Yaqshid, Karan, Abdiasis and Wardhigley districts were the hardest hit," he added.

By 15 March, hundreds of families were on the move, "taking advantage of the break in the shelling". According to the journalist, many were joining those in the Afgoye corridor - already home to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people - while others were heading to Balad, 30km north of Mogadishu.

While the death toll was more than 100, another 245 people were injured, the medical source said.

"These are the ones we can account for; there may be many more who are unaccounted for," she said. "I am sure that once we have access to the epicentre of the fighting the death toll will be much higher."

Most of the injured, she said, were children, citing the case of Salado Ali in Medina, Mogadishu's main hospital. Her six-year-old son and husband were injured when their home in the northern Karan district was hit by a shell.

"The doctors have removed the pieces from the boy's stomach," she told IRIN by telephone. "They tell me he is stable."

Salado, whose husband was in another wing of the hospital with a less serious injury, said: "I don't think there is anyone left in our neighbourhood." A selection of IRIN reports are posted on ReliefWeb. Find more IRIN news and analysis at http://www.irinnews.org

Une sélection d'articles d'IRIN sont publiés sur ReliefWeb. Trouvez d'autres articles et analyses d'IRIN sur http://www.irinnews.org

This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. Refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use.

Cet article ne reflète pas nécessairement les vues des Nations Unies. Voir IRIN droits d'auteur pour les conditions d'utilisation.

The Rest @ IRIN




Shimron Issachar
On Twitter

UN to Renew its Somali "Peacekeeping" Operation

The UN again does nothing to strengthenth Somalia but renews the authorization of their peacekeeping force. That way, they can "say the tried" when Somalia blows up in interfaction fighting that is soon to begin.

-Shimron

January 2009 – Renewing the authorization of the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia today, the Security Council called for action to bolster those troops, while signalling its intention to establish a United Nations force, when conditions permit, in the Horn of Africa country that has lacked a functioning central government since 1991.

In the resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-member body, Secretary-General Ban Ki-mooren is requested to establish a trust fund to help support the AU force, known as AMISOM, and to facilitate a logistical support package, training and equipment, in anticipation of its eventual absorption into a UN force.

The Council also urged African nations to boost AMISOM''s troop strength from the current 2,600 to the 8,000 originally authorized.

It requested Mr. Ban, by 15 April, to develop the mandate for a UN force including assisting the flow of humanitarian aid, monitoring a ceasefire and assisting “in supporting the effective re-establishment and training of inclusive Somali security forces, including military, police and judiciary.”

The “follow-on” UN force is subject, however, to a further decision of the Council, to be taken by 1 June 2009, according to the resolution.
Violence continues in Somalia despite the signing in June 2008 of the UN-facilitated Djibouti Agreement by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS).

Both sides agreed in that pact to end their conflict and called on the UN to deploy an international stabilization force in the troubled nation.

In his latest comments on the issue, Mr. Ban has stated that conditions are not yet right for a UN peacekeeping operation in Somalia and he recommended strengthening the AU Mission.

Many Security Council members at today''s meeting, while supporting assistance to AMISOM, also warned against a too-hasty authorization of a UN force, citing chaotic conditions in the country and difficulties in mobilizing peacekeeping resources.

In the past few days, as Ethiopian troops withdrew from Mogadishu two years after rolling in to support the embattled Government from a growing insurgency, Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah urged local factions to ensure peace and stability in the war-ravaged country and to hasten the election of a new president.

Today''s resolution reaffirmed that it was up to Somalis to abide by peace agreements and to establish national forces that would ultimately assume full responsibility for security.


UN team to explore ways of supporting security in violence-wracked Somalia
Video

UN Press Release

Shabaab Captures World Food PRogramme Port in Somalia

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The African Union appealed to the United Nations to send peacekeepers to help stop the fighting in Somalia, after a week in which a radical Islamist group expanded its control in the war-torn Horn of Africa country.

The AU's Peace and Security Council asked the UN ``to take necessary steps to authorize the deployment of a UN peacekeeping operation in Somalia as a matter of urgency,'' according to an e-mailed statement.

• Somalia is in its 18th year of civil war that has left at least 1.3 million displaced and nearly 40 percent of the country in need of emergency humanitarian relief.
• This week the Islamic militia al-Shabaab captured the town of Merka in southern Somalia, a key port used by the World Food Programme to deliver relief supplies to 800,000 people in the region.
• Somalia's internationally backed Transitional Federal Government now controls only pockets of southern Somalia and is largely supported by troops from neighboring Ethiopia.
• The AU currently has about 3,400 peacekeepers in Somalia who have failed to halt the fighting.

The Rest @ Bloomberg Africa

On Nov. 5, the TFG signed a peace agreement with a moderate Islamist faction that called for the formation of a joint security force and the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops. Al- Shabaab has rejected that agreement and is fighting to establish an Islamic state in Somalia. The U.S. considers al-Shabaab a terrorist group.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via the Johannesburg bureau at abolleurs@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: November 14, 2008 09:26 EST

Somalia: 10 killed in Mogadishu's Bakara Market shelling
27 Sep 27, 2008 - 4:31:05 PM

MOGADISHU, Somalia Sep 27 (Garowe Online) - Somali insurgents waging war in the country's capital Mogadishu used mortars to target Aden Adde International Airport on Saturday as an African Union military plane landed, Radio Garowe reported.

Several mortars hit inside airport grounds but caused no damage and the AU military plane landed safely, according to AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) spokesman Major Bahoku Barigye.

Wounded civilians Sep 27/GOSomali government forces responded to the mortar attack by shelling the capital's Bakara Market, which the interim government has long suspected is home base for anti-government rebels.

AMISOM peacekeepers driving tanks entered city streets in a show of force.
At least 10 civilians were killed and 17 others wounded in the shelling, witnesses told Radio Garowe.

Al Shabaab militants claimed responsibility for the mortar attack. Last week, al Shabaab issued a threat to shoot down airplanes landing at Mogadishu's airport.

It was the third mortar attack on the airport in a week, sparking street battles and artillery barrages that have killed upwards of 50 civilians.

At least three Ethiopian soldiers were killed in a roadside explosion as their convoy drove towards Mogadishu, witnesses reported.

"Ethiopian army trucks who came from Afgoye and were heading to Mogadishu were targeted in a heavy explosion and I saw dead bodies fall out of the cars," said witness Khadar Mohamed, who fled Mogadishu violence months ago.

Ethiopian soldiers opened fire in panic but no one was wounded in the subsequent gunfire.
Islamic Courts spokesman Abdirahim Isse Addow claimed responsibility for the roadside bomb, adding that Ethiopian forces "suffered heavy casualties."

The Rest @ Garowe Online

By Abdi Sheikh and Ibrahim Mohamed

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's warring parties pounded each other with artillery in Mogadishu on Friday after an African Union military aircraft defied a rebel ban on planes using the capital's international airport.

Witnesses said at least 15 people were killed.

The bombed-out city's airport had been abandoned since Tuesday after Islamist insurgents from the hardline al Shabaab group vowed to shoot down any aircraft trying to land there.

In another demonstration of their increasing strength, the Islamists also chased away pro-government militia manning roadblocks in the south of the lawless Horn of Africa nation.

On Friday, a plane carrying AU peacekeepers braved the rebel threats and touched down at the Mogadishu airstrip, provoking a barrage of mortar fire from the insurgents.

Government forces and their Ethiopian allies responded with missiles, heavy machine guns and mortar rounds of their own.

An AU spokesman in the city said the aircraft had been carrying troops from Burundi, but that none of them were hurt.

As usual in Somalia, civilians bore the brunt of the fighting. At least four residents died and seven were injured when one shell detonated in the Kilometre 4 area of Mogadishu.

SHELLS KILL CIVILIANS

"A group of local teenagers was sitting playing cards here under a big tree," witness Abdullahi Farah told Reuters. "Now their flesh is scattered everywhere."

Residents said six bodies lay in another area and that a house nearby was hit and burning with three bodies inside.

An official at the city's main Madena Hospital said about 50 wounded civilians had been admitted. Two of them, including a two-year-old child, later died of their injuries.

The Rest @ Reuters Africa

Ethiopia May Withdraw from Somalia

Ethiopia hints that they may withdraw from Somalia, and The Shabaab and Islamic Courts Union suggest that they have given the Somali people a great victory with repelling the invaders.

Ethiopia is right that African Union has dropped the ball, and the US then sees that they must intervene to prevent a the setting up a spot of land that al Qaeda has stated they will use as a base to establish a multi-national caliphate.

Below are links that describe both points of view:

-Shimron

Ethiopia's story (Reuters, August 28th, 2008)

Nairobi - Ethiopia could withdraw its troops from war-torn Somalia even if the transitional government is not stable, but will hold on at least until the AU deploys additional peacekeepers, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.

Ethiopian troops invaded neighbouring Somalia in 2006 to help kick out the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and put the transitional federal government back in power.

• Ethiopia has long worried that instability in Somalia and the existence of Somali separatist groups in Ethiopia's Ogaden region only increases the anxiety.
• "The operation has been extremely expensive, so we will have to balance the domestic pressures on the one hand and pressures in Somalia on the other and try to come up with a balanced solution," Zenawi told the Financial Times in an interview.
• The Somali government and some moderate opposition leaders recently signed a peace agreement, but Islamic insurgent group al-Shabaab - the armed wing of the UIC - has refused to recognise it.

Al-Shabaab says Ethiopian must leave Somalia before any kind of peace can be achieved.
UN agencies say over 6 000 civilians have died in the insurgency that exploded in early 2007. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis who fled fighting in the capital Mogadishu are now living in camps.

• Ethiopian troops, backed by a small contingent of AU soldiers, have struggled to contain the insurgents, who last Friday seized control of the strategic port town Kismayo.
• Despite Zenawi's apparent impatience with the state of play and also squabbles between the Somali president and prime minister, he said that Ethiopia would "hold the ring" until the AU could deploy more peacekeepers.
• However, he made it clear that Ethiopia was not happy with carrying the burden by itself, with little backing from the AU and no backing from the international community.

"We didn't anticipate that the international community would be happy riding the Ethiopian horse and flogging it at the same time for so long," he told the British daily.

Only a quarter of the planned 8 000-strong AU force has been deployed so far. The UN has also been mulling sending in a peacekeeping force, but has so far taken no action.

Shabaab - UIC's Story (August 29th, 2008)

UIC: We destroyed the Ethiopian dream Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:48:09 GMT

Zenawi had said Ethiopia was to leave Somalia urgently. The Somali opposition has commented on the news about the 'urgent' Ethiopian withdrawal from Somalia saying they dashed the Ethiopians' hopes.

• We destroyed the Ethiopian dream and taught them an unforgettable lesson, the spokesman for the Somali opposition, the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC)'s military wing Al-Shabaab, Abdi Rahim Isse Addow told a Press TV correspondent.
• The Al-Shabaab spokesman added that they were elated by the news about the pullout which would mark a turning point in Somalia's recent beleaguered history.
• He noted that Ethiopia brushed off the international community's advice against (the 2006) Somalia invasion which the troops carried out with US encouragement.

"Somalia is too great a nation to fall to Ethiopia. We form an independent state which won freedom a long time ago" - added the spokesman who had earlier vowed they would fight off the Ethiopians even throughout the holy month of Ramadan.

The Rest @ Press TV (Iran)

Burundi PeaceKeepers in Somalia

By Aweys Yusuf and Abdi Sheikh

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A first contingent of 100 peacekeepers from Burundi deployed in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Sunday, hours after fighting between Islamist rebels and government forces killed at least four people.

The arrival of the Burundian soldiers in the rubble-strewn city marked the first phase of long-delayed support for 1,600 Ugandan troops who began work in March as the vanguard of a planned 8,000-strong African Union (AU) mission.

"One hundred peacekeepers from Burundi have just landed here," Captain Paddy Ankunda, the AU force spokesman, told Reuters at Mogadishu's heavily guarded international airport.

Burundi's government had pledged to send about 1,700 troops to Somalia's capital. They were meant to arrive in July, but their deployment was repeatedly delayed.

In Burundi's capital, Bujumbura, an army spokesman said the rest of the contingent of two battalions of 850 soldiers each should be on the ground within the next two weeks.

"The team went to prepare the ground for the rest of the troops," Colonel Adolphe Manirakiza told Reuters.

Without support, the Ugandans have been restricted to guarding Mogadishu's sea and air ports and presidential palace, as well as providing security for top government officials.

Fierce battles broke out overnight in northern neighbourhoods of the city as Islamist-led insurgents attacked government security forces and their Ethiopian allies.


The Rest @ Reuters Africa