By Mustafa Haji Abdinur
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Hardline Islamist fighters, on an offensive since May 7 to oust a UN-backed transitional government led by Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, this week stepped up attacks and killed three senior government officials on successive days.
"The government is weakened by the rebel forces. We ask neighbouring countries -- including Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Yemen -- to send troops to Somalia within 24 hours," parliament speaker Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nur told reporters.
"We have a state of emergency in this country today because foreign fighters from all over the world are fighting the government," said Nur, adding that an Al-Qaeda operative from Pakistan was commanding the fighting in Mogadishu.
"We have taken this decision after seeing the emerging threats from foreign fighters," he said.
Nur said the Pakistani Al-Qaeda commander "is now based in Sanna (a neighbourhood close to the presidential palace), firing mortars towards the palace."
"We need neighbouring countries to protect ...Somalia. Otherwise the trouble caused by these foreign fighters will spill to all the corners of the region," he added.
Three high-profile officials, including a security minister, have been killed in as many days this week. On Saturday, fighting intensified in Hamarweh, a suburb near the presidential palace.
Heavy Friday clashes in northern Karan district triggered a record exodus of civilians from Mogadishu, the highest so far this year.
Residents said Islamist forces were just about three kilometres away from Sharif's palace which is protected by hundreds of African Union peacekeepers.
Deployed in March 2007, the force counts more than 4,300 Ugandan and Burundian soldiers and is currently charged with protecting strategic sites in the seaside capital such as the presidency, the port and the airport.
But it is not allowed to fight alongside government forces and is authorised to retaliate only in case of a direct attack.
"I saw heavily armed Islamist fighters advancing onto Hamarweh area. They are firing mortar shells and government forces are retaliating. It seems they are to close to taking control of the area," said resident Warsameh Ahmed.
Thousands of residents fled the city on Saturday, many on foot or perched on donkey carts.
The exodus was the heaviest since Sharif took office five months ago, an AFP correspondent said.
With wailing children in trail and a few paltry belongings, residents abandoned their homes for Afgooye, an uncontested but Islamist controlled area on the southern outskirts of the capital.
"I have never fled my house since the fall of (ex-president) Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, but today I am among the thousands who are desperately leaving their beloved homes," lamented Husein Sheikh Barre.
Sitting on the back of an open truck with his wife and six children, the 53-year-old added: "Our neighbourhood was relatively calm, but mortars are falling everywhere and gunfire is everywhere. I don't think anyone will remain in Karan".
Many of the displaced fled to Afgooye corridor, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of the capital and where many sleep in the open by the roadside. Aid agencies say at least 400,000 displaced are living rough there.
Around 300 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the six-week-old battle and more than 125,000 displaced, according to UN figures and casualty tolls compiled by AFP.
The drive against Sharif's administration has been spearheaded by the hardline Shebab armed group and the more political Hezb al-Islam (Party of Islam) of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former Sharif ally.
Source: AFP, June 20, 2009