SOMALI PRESIDENT CALLS FOR PEACE IN MOGADISHU

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Somali president calls for peace

Somali interim president Abdullahi Yusuf

The interim president is struggling to enforce central authority

Somalia's interim president has called for an end to factional fighting in the capital, Mogadishu, which has claimed some 70 lives in recent days.

 

Abdullahi Yusuf said it was not right to start new fighting after 15 years of civil war and urged both sides to stop.

 

The dispute between Islamic militia fighters and an alliance of warlords began on Wednesday near the port area.

 

Earlier the militia said it had taken control of the area but the warlords said the fighting was continuing.

 

A spokesman for the Islamic militia, Mohammud Omar Adan, told the BBC Somali service that the Islamists had won the battle against the traditional warlords.

 

"The fighting has ended and we have the upper hand...We control the checkpoints leading to the port. Things are returning to normal there now; thank God the trouble has ended."

 

 

SOMALI STRUGGLE

No government for 15 years

Peace process was inching forward

Mogadishu fighting worst since 1996

'Anti-terror' warlords fighting Islamist militia

 

Global battle plays out in Somalia

Eyewitness: 'Waiting to die'

 

But residents have reported hearing sporadic fighting and the alliance of warlords says the battle for the city's only working port is continuing.

 

The warlords, alongside a group of powerful businessmen, have controlled the city for the past 15 years.

 

The Islamic militia is seeking to establish a system of Sharia courts.

 

The BBC's David Bamford says the emergence of the Islamist militia has helped to unite the Somali warlords - who had previously fought one another - around a common cause.

 

Interim government

 

Meanwhile, interim President Abdullahi Yusuf has been gathering with members of the transitional parliament in an attempt to exert some sort of central authority.

 

"I see this fighting as unnecessary after 15 years of civil war. It is not right to start new fighting. The two sides should stop what they're doing," he told the BBC.

 

Somalia has been without an effective central government for 15 years and has been carved up by rival militias.

 

The transitional parliament met recently for the first time on home soil since it was formed in Kenya more than a year ago as part of attempts to restore peace and stability.