More than 350 dead in Somali fighting

Artillery shells and mortars rained down on Mogadishu today after a week of fighting, despite a plea by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for an end to the violence that local groups say has claimed the lives of over 350 people.

Islamic insurgents clashed with Ethiopian and Somali government forces, using mortars and rocket-propelled grenades against tanks and artillery positions in the north of the battle-scarred coastal city.

A suspected suicide car bomb exploded outside an Ethiopian military base 18 miles from the capital, after troops opened fire on a minibus speeding toward the base, local resident Mayow Mohamed said.

Three civilians were injured in the blast, and Ethiopian troops sealed off the area as smoke billowed into the sky, he said.

Another car bomb exploded outside Mogadishu’s Ambassador Hotel, Somali presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamoud Hussein said. Seven people were killed in the blast, said eyewitness Abdu-kadir Mohamud. The hotel is used by government lawmakers.

Sudan Ali Ahmed, who heads Somalia’s Elman Human Rights Organisation, said 29 civilians were killed in today’s fighting and 49 others were wounded. Some 36 insurgents were killed and 44 wounded, he added.

In total 358 people have been killed and 680 wounded in the outbreak of violence, according to a local committee assessing damage from the worst fighting in more than 15 years.

More than 320,000 Somalis have fled the capital since February, the UN says. Over 82,000 people have fled the city since fighting erupted on April 18, said Hussein Farah Siyad, a spokesman with Mogadishu’s dominant clan – the Hawiye.

The latest upsurge came hours after the UN secretary-general called on the warring sides to “immediately cease all hostilities and to facilitate access for the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance,” spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement in New York.

“He deplores the reported indiscriminate use of heavy weapons against civilian population centres, which is in disregard of international humanitarian law,” the statement said.

The coastal city of Kismayo, 300 miles south of the capital, has fallen to a Somali clan with alleged ties to the defeated Islamic movement, remnants of which are fighting Ethiopian forces in the capital, said Marehan spokesman Mohamed Ali Hassan.

The city fell last night after a bloody clash between two clans.

The United Nations said the fighting in Mogadishu had sparked the worst humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged country’s recent history, with many of the city’s residents trapped because roads out of Mogadishu were blocked.

Corpses have been left on the streets for days, witnesses said, as it is too dangerous to try to retrieve them.

The top US diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, said late Monday the US was also deeply concerned by the fighting in the Somali capital but condemned Eritrea “because they continue to fund, arm, train and advise the insurgents”.

“We’re pushing for the ceasefire…so that they can end this violence,” she told reporters in Washington.

The latest fighting flared after Ethiopian and Somali government troops made a final push to try to wipe out the insurgency, Western diplomatic and Somali government sources said.

The government and its Ethiopian backers were facing international pressure over the mounting death toll and appeared determined to bring order before a planned national reconciliation conference. Clan and warlord militia have also joined the fight against the Ethiopians and government forces.

A bid earlier this month to wipe out the insurgency left more than 1,000 people dead, many of them civilians.

Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.

The transitional government was formed in 2004 with UN help, but has struggled to extend its control over the country.