Truce brokered?

[N.O.R.F]

Fighting in Somali Capital Continues

 

By SALAD DUHUL

Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia --

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Mogadishu's dominant clan said Sunday it has brokered a truce with Ethiopian military officials who are supporting Somalia's government, even as mortar shells continued slamming into the capital for a fourth day.

 

Ahmed Diriye, the ****** clan spokesman, said fighting in Mogadishu should end within hours. Ethiopian officials were not immediately available for comment.

 

Somali government troops and their Ethiopian allies have been waging a fierce offensive since Thursday to wipe out Islamic insurgents, sparking some of the heaviest fighting in 15 years in the capital. Untold numbers of civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded.

 

The offensive has focused on parts of the capital controlled by a clan that is a major supporter of more radical elements of the Council of Islamic Courts, which ruled Mogadishu for six months before being driven out in December. That clan is the **** *****, a branch of the larger ****** clan.

 

The International Committee of the Red Cross said dozens of people have been killed since Thursday and more than 220 wounded, most of them civilians with bullet, grenade and other wounds. But the fighting is so severe and widespread that bodies were not being picked up or even tallied. Hospitals were overwhelmed, with patients sleeping on floors.

 

"The victims are the civilians, only civilians are dying and getting wounded in this fighting," Khadijo Farah Warsame, 45, a mother of seven, said Saturday.

 

Ethiopia says its forces have killed more than 200 insurgents since the assault started.

 

Somali presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamoud Hussein on Saturday blamed the violence on foreign terrorists, saying al-Qaida had sent fighters to battle government and allied troops.

 

"These elements were behind the downing of the helicopter yesterday," he said.

 

The insurgents are linked to the Council of Islamic Courts, which was driven from power in December by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers, accompanied by U.S. special forces. The U.S. 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. Clan elders have tried to negotiate several cease-fires, but cannot control the young insurgents.

 

The U.N.'s refugee agency said 58,000 people have fled violence in the Somali capital since the beginning of February.

 

Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another.

 

A U.N. peacekeeping operation in the 1990s saw clashes between foreign troops and Somali fighters, including the notorious downing of two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters in 1993 -- which was followed by a firefight that killed some 300 Somalis in 12 hours. The U.S. withdrew from Somalia in 1994, and that was followed a year later by the departure of U.N. peacekeepers.

 

A national government was established in 2004 but has failed to assert any real control.

 

source

[Che -Guevara]

There is no truce.

[N.O.R.F]

Its imminent if we to believe the above sources,,

[Jacaylbaro]

Le't see what will happen in the course of the day

[N.O.R.F]

Somalia: Clan leaders issue press release over Mogadishu conflict

 

(SomaliNet) Traditional elders of the Mogadishu’s dominant ****** tribe who had an intensive meeting on Sunday issued a press statement containing six articles after receiving a telephone contact from the Ethiopian military officials yesterday over how to reach a ceasefire agreement as the ***** leaders accepted the proposal.

 

With the regard to early ceasefire between the ****** elders and the Ethiopian government on 22 March 2007 in the Somalia capital Mogadishu.

 

With the reference to carnage, destruction, the massive displacing subjected to civilians and the property destroyed for the last few days, the ****** leaders jointly issued the following articles as below:

 

1. To cease the fire from 2:00pm today, April 1 2007 throughout the capital.

 

2. Wishing the Ethiopian government to announce a ceasefire and also keep it emplaced.

 

3. The Ethiopian forces should withdraw from all the locations they had entered through the fighting to let the civilian people back to their homes.

 

4. Within 24 hours, peace dialogue should be opened to discuss the extent of the casualty resulted from the fighting in the capital.

 

5. The international community such donor countries, human rights organizations and aid agencies particularly the Red crescent and Red cross to provide help to 1.5 million displaced people inside and outside of Mogadishu and also in the nearby regions. The human rights abuse done by the Ethiopian forces and interim government troops should be taken into inquiry during the war.

 

6. We are asking for international support to bury the dead people and treat the wounded.

 

7. The Ethiopian forces and the transitional federal government to release the innocents they had arrested illegally.

 

Despite the truce announcement, there is a fighting continuing in the Somalia capital as the sounds of heavy artillery and gun fires could be heard throughout the city.

[Xoogsade]

Both are buying time I think. The Xabashis can not be trusted and these elders are falling into a trap one more time.

[Che -Guevara]

Norther....Reinforcements have arrived for Ethios through Balcad, and Afgooye.They also have troop presence in central Somalia, and went as north as Bosaso. They have no reason to stop now. And Xamar is ghost town now exception being Kaaraan, Shibis, Madina, and Boondheere. Dhalinyarada dagaalka ku jira Gadoon, and no Somali is coming to their rescue including those in the northern suburbans, and you can't forget reer Pland, and Bakool. It looks like hal Qabiil la xasuuqay while the rest watched.

 

 

I just hope Maatada wax looqabta who get scattered all over the south, and in the more "peaceful" northern Xamar.

 

P.S Uncle Sam wants this done quickly.

[Gordon Gekko]

It's the April fools day today...

[Taako Man]

No truce. Definite and final solution will be reached one way or another inshallah.

[Captain Xalane]

The Government is buying no time and thus most of the criminals have been liquidated.However,this war will continue and no truce will be in effect until the last one of them standing is rooted out or is forced to submit to the will of the Government.The Drills have been very effective in that it devastated the enemy.Now,they are claiming the Government to give them the ex Defence headquarters back as if it belonged to them to begin with.Boys,this war is soon to be wrapped off and the sooner the better.Those who are to mourn and those who have mourned earlier may as well get over it.

[Tahliil]

I don't think the New Darwiishes need a time to buy or 'a time to sell'...They are in for the long haul and surely they will change the dynamics not of Yeey the vampire politics but the whole horn of Africa.. Behold the domino effect of the Somali and ethiopian war....as it changes the landscape of East Africa politics

[Fabregas]

As i have said before, if this operation is won by the Ethiopians. This war or the fallouts of it will continue for a longtime to come.

[Gordon Gekko]

Geel_Jire12. Let's take a look at one possible and most certain development, as I see it:

 

When the elements of conflict becomes evaded and their weapons confiscated or destroyed the direct threat of their attacks is at once limited to non-existent percentages. The government can then launch it's political and public relations campaigns without having to loose more energy, money and focus on the security of it's members and people or other major disturbances such as low-intensity warfare. Issues such as medication and treatment of wounded, food distribution and safe placements for IDPs, local security via police force, land- and property ownership can initially be implemented while other more wider programs such as the implementation of a central bank and other regulations, laws and licenses on the business world which could bring the society into a nourishing growth economy could be established later on. These are just a few of the many actions that the government are planning to embark on as soon as security and kala-dambeyn has been restored. These are programms that benefits the society and the civilians and which enhances their life in many ways, making them more positive towards the government, and thus, harder for any left-over rebell to recruit and gain the hearts of the masses once again. With other words; if these rebells loose the war now they wont have any vacuum to fill later on and would subsequently loose everything plus more if the government gets some peace and stability and starts gettings it's business on.

 

Mr. Geel_Jire12 As an opponent to the government and a supporter of the factions fighting them, please present a possible long-term impact, from your point of view, of the ongoing crisis, highlighting the premises of these possible outcomes - (assuming that the ethopians succeed on the current operations).

[EboniQue]

^ OOdwayne Xaal ha qaato

[Fabregas]

Mr Economistow, i will respond to your at later time, but firstly let us clear up one error:

 

Quote:Mr. Geel_Jire12 As an opponent to the government and a supporter of the factions fighting them....

 

Correction: I am an opponent of the tribal dominated regime in Adiss Ababa. Which has been massacring Somali civilians in the Ethiopia and is today commiting a genocide in Muqdisho. Whilst also witholding humantarian aid in the Somali Ethiopian region. I am an opponent of the illegal and unsanctioned invasion of my country, as according to Islamic and International law. I am an opponent of the:

 

Rape of Somali women

Mass detentions/extraordinarysecret renditions of Somali clerics, womand and even children

The funding of warlords that have kept Somalia at anarchy for the last sixteen years.

 

Lastly, i am an opponent of the Semi tribal sectarian governmental system that are currently being promoted in Muslim lands such as: Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Somalia.

 

I will respond to your other questions later inshallah, know that we have got that "small" misunderstanding out of the way.