Suicide bombers strike in northern Somalia

Guardian
Wednesday, October 29, 2008

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Three suspected suicide bombers attacked a government office, a UN compound and the Ethiopian embassy in Hargeisa, northern Somalia today, killing and wounding several people.

In other attacks, two suicide bombers detonated vehicles inside a heavily guarded compound in Bosasso, in the neighbouring region of Puntland, wounding at least eight soldiers.

Somalia's north has tried to sever ties with the chaotic south, which includes the beleaguered capital, Mogadishu.

Puntland has a semi-autonomous administration, and Somaliland has long sought international recognition as a nation separate from Somalia.

The wave of bombings appeared to have been timed to coincide with a meeting of east African leaders in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss a new peace deal. The regional body the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is hosting the talks.

A member of the Islamic Courts Union militia patrols in the Somali city Balad. Photograph: Karel Prinsloo/AP

The meeting follows a UN deal, brokered on Sunday, between the weak interim Somali government and an opposition group. The UN pact calls for Ethiopian troops, who intervened last year to back the transitional Somali government, to withdraw from key areas of the capital, Mogadishu, and regional centres.

With nine months left before their mandate to rule expires, Transitional Front Government (TFG) leaders attending the Nairobi conference are expected to brief their neighbours on the progress they have made. The TFG denies it has been a failure.

Mohamed Talha, the deputy speaker of parliament, said: "We recognise ourselves that we have sacrificed and have been victimised. Many members of parliament were killed and injured. We lost many friends, and we want the international community and Somalis to recognise that we are heroes, not failures."

The TFG has been fighting forces loyal to the Islamic Courts Union, which controlled the capital, and large parts of southern Somalia until Ethiopian troops drove it out of Mogadishu.

The Islamic Courts' military wing, al-Shabaab, which has split into a separate force, has rejected the UN peace effort, saying it will carry on fighting. But anti-government forces are split, with some groups supporting the UN peace deal.

The Nairobi conference is the latest initiative to try to bring peace to Somalia, which has been without an effective government since 1991. Aid groups describe Somalia as one of the world's greatest humanitarian disasters - worse even than the western Sudanese region of Darfur.

Nearly half of the country's population of 7 million depend on food aid, the UN estimates. Many have fled their homes in the capital and live on its outskirts in desperate conditions.

Al-Shabaab's control of the southern port of Kismayo was underlined this week when its members stoned to death a woman accused of adultery, according to witnesses.

The woman, who was 23, was killed in the town square in front of hundreds of people. She is the first person to be killed by stoning in Somalia for two years. When a relative and others pushed forward to rescue her, guards opened fire, killing a child.

SOURCE: Guardian,Wednesday, October 29, 2008

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