Global Arab Network | Clashes in Somalia,123 fighters killed

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Clashes in Somalia,123 fighters killed

At least 123 fighters have been killed in clashes between rival Islamist groups in central Somalia. Al-Shabab and allied fighters from Hizb ul-Islam were trying to capture the town of Wabho from the pro-government group Ahlu Sunna Wal-Jama'ah.

After an intense battle with mortars and machine-guns on Friday, both sides claimed to be in control of the town in the Galgudud region, about 400km north of the capital Mogadishu.

Fighters spoke of dozens of dead, and the local Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation said it had confirmed 56 fighters killed and dozens more injured.

Sheikh Musa Arale, a spokesman for Hizb ul-Islam, said: "We have killed many of them and we lost several mujahidin. We have taken control of Wabho village and captured several armoured vehicles from the enemy forces."

Muktar Fidow, a commander of Ahlu Sunna Wal-Jama'ah, dismissed the claim.

"Nobody has full control of Wabho at the moment and heavy fighting is ongoing. They have suffered heavy losses and so have we," he said.

Towns in central Somalia have been changing hands regularly between rival factions in on-off fighting throughout the year.

Ahlu Sunna Wal-Jama'ah was originally a religious organisation rooted in Somalia's Sufi brand of Islam but it took up arms in parts of Galgudud earlier this year to challenge al-Shabab.

An Islamist insurgency that broke out in early 2007 -- the latest in 19 years of conflict in Somalia -- has killed around 18,000 civilians and thousands more fighters.

It has also drawn foreign jihadists into Somalia, enabled piracy to flourish offshore, and unsettled the whole region, putting East African neighbours on high security alert.

Among the dead in Wabho, according to pro-government Alha Sunna, was Hizbul Islam leader Aweys, a 62-year-old cleric and hardliner whom the United States and United Nations have accused of links to al Qaeda. The group said he died of gunshot wounds.

"Hassan Dahir died in El Bur," Alha Sunna spokesman Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh Abu Yusuf told Reuters, referring to a nearby town with a hospital.

"We seriously injured him yesterday. This is good news."

If confirmed, Aweys' death would be a major blow to the rebels and a boost for Ahmed's government, which had tried unsuccessfully to broker peace talks with the cleric.

Mogadishu exodus nears 100,000

The number of Somalis forced from their homes in Mogadishu has now topped 96,000 since the start of fighting between government forces and armed opposition groups on May 8.

Out of this latest total of displaced, an estimated 35,000 are still in the city, looking for shelter in more secure areas because they have no means to leave. Some 26,000 have managed to flee to makeshift sites in the so-called Afgooye corridor about 30 kms south-east of Mogadishu, joining 400,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) already sheltering there. The remaining 35,000 have fled to other parts of Somalia. Some of them are also making their way towards neighbouring countries.

According to UNHCR’s local partners in Somalia, some 2,000 people have indicated that they plan to cross the border into Kenya. More than a thousand said they are ready to risk their lives and make the perilous journey with smugglers across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. Some 600 people told our local partners they were heading towards Ethiopia.

In neighbouring Kenya, the number of new arrivals from Somalia spiked from an average of 100 a day to nearly 200 over the past week. Since the beginning of the year, almost 32,000 people have crossed into Kenya, bringing the total number of Somali refugees in the country to more than 297,000.

UNHCR continue to rush aid to the displaced in Somalia. Our local partners have just completed the first phase of an aid distribution south of Mogadishu. Deliveries of UNHCR aid items began on Tuesday 26 May and 12,600 people received plastic sheeting, sleeping mats, kitchen sets, blankets, jerry cans and sanitary pads in Kah Shiqal area of southern Mogadishu.

The next phase of aid distribution was scheduled to start earlier this week in the vicinity of a location called Kilometer 13, on the south-eastern outskirts of the Somali capital. During this phase we had hoped to provide humanitarian assistance to almost 30,000 people but the distribution was halted due to fighting between opposition groups and government forces for the control of the main road from Mogadishu to the Afgooye district. (unhcr, Reuters, Aljazeera)

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