Clan truce fails to stop fighting in Mogadishu

Mortar shells and artillery fire rained down on Mogadishu, dashing the hopes of desperate residents that a truce brokered by influential clan elders might halt days of Somalia fighting that have left streets strewn with unclaimed bodies.

A military offensive by the government and its Ethiopian allies, which started on Thursday, aims to wipe out a lethal Islamic insurgency. It has sparked the heaviest fighting in the Somali capital since the country tumbled into anarchy in the early 1990s.

The new violence has been so severe and widespread that bodies were not being picked up from the streets or even counted; unknown numbers of civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded.

There was a glimmer of hope yesterday when Mogadishu’s highly influential and dominant clan said it had brokered a truce to stop the fighting. But mortars were raining down hours after Hawiye clan spokesman Ahmed Diriye made the announcement.

Clan elders have tried to negotiate several cease-fires, but so far they have not been able to control the young insurgents.

Masked gunmen carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine guns were brazenly walking the largely abandoned streets of Mogadishu, one of the world’s most violent and gun-infested cities. Shopkeepers closed their stores and families fled from their homes for fear of stray mortars and bullets.

Uganda, which has about 1,400 troops in Somalia as the vanguard of a larger African Union peacekeeping force, said it had lost its first soldier – a man who was hit by a mortar on Saturday. So far, Uganda is the only country to contribute to the peacekeeping force.

The insurgents are linked to the Council of Islamic Courts, which was driven from power in December by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers, accompanied by US special forces. The US has accused the courts of having ties to al-Qaida.

The Islamic courts stockpiled thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition during the six months they controlled Mogadishu. The insurgency will likely last until that stockpile is depleted, or key leaders are killed.

The militants have long rejected any secular government and have sworn to fight until Somalia becomes an Islamic emirate.

The UN refugee agency says 58,000 people have fled violence in the Somali capital since the beginning of February.