Somalia

More than 100 dead in Mogadishu fighting

Article published on the 2009-05-15 Latest update 2009-05-15 13:46 TU

A Somali Islamist fighter near a road that links to the presidential palace in Mogadishu, 14 May 2009
(Photo: Reuters)

Somalia's Information Ministry says that 103 people died, 420 were hurt, and 18,000 were displaced this past week during an insurgent offensive in the capital.

The government appointed a new army commander, explaining that the change would halt its retreat and turn around its fortunes in Mogadishu.

President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed named a deputy police commissioner, Yusuf Osman Dhumal, to the post. The president is holed up in a palace in the capital, protected by some 4,000 African Union peacekeepers.

Nearby, Islamist insurgents have been manning trenches.

The United States on Thursday accused Eritrea, Somalia's neighbour, of supporting those insurgents. Eritrea is "fanning the flames of violence" which will "promote further acts of terrorism and lead to greater regional stability", Washington said in a statement.

Most of the insurgents are from the Al-Shabaab movement, which the United States, among other countries, has designated a terrorist organisation. Others are from Hezb al-Islamiya, loyal to Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who directed the militias that took control of Mogadishu in 2006.

Human Rights Watch says that Eritrea has hosted Aweys and reportedly provided his group with weapons and funding.

However, it may be in the interest of Eritrea to support these insurgents, because of its ongoing conflict with Ethiopia, Abdi Ismail Samatar, professor of geography at the University of Minnesota, told RFI.

"There are two factions that have been fighting the Ethiopians in Somalia over the last two years," he said, "and those have split into two groups: one group that was based in Djibouti, East Africa, who joined the transitional federal government, and others who have refused that because they claim that Mr Ahmed and his group have reneged on their agreements which they had as an organisation when they were resisting the Ethopians".

Some analysts say that Somalia may be the ground for a de facto war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.