Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Liban Abdi said he had seen the bodies of at least 20 people killed in fighting in the central Mudug region. Most of the dead were militia members.
There have been sporadic clashes between the Majerteen and the Sa'ad clans over access to land and water for several weeks. The most recent fighting began early Monday.
Damerale village elder Hassan Mohamud says he has called for calm but that residents are fleeing the area around Damerale and Docle Omane villages and more gunmen are arriving.
"It's awful fighting and tension is still high so I call for prompt action," he said by telephone.
Twenty-five people were wounded in the fighting, said a nurse in the main hospital in Galkayo, the provincial capital. She declined to give her name, citing fear of reprisals.
Somalia has had no effective central government since a socialist dictator was overthrown almost 20 years ago.
The West currently supports an 8,000-strong African Union peacekeeping mission that protects a beleaguered administration in the capital of Mogadishu. The administration comes under daily attack from Islamist insurgents and has been unable to deliver either services or security to the Somali population.
Source: AP