Shells land in compound of SOS Children's Village

[xiinfaniin]

Shells land in compound of SOS Children's Village Mogadishu

SOS-Kinderdorf International

Hilary Atkins

Friday, April 20, 2007

 

 

During a day of heavy fighting in Mogadishu, four shells exploded in the SOS Children's Village Mogadishu.

 

 

The SOS Children's Village Mogadishu was under siege yesterday when four missile shells exploded in the project grounds during heavy fighting around the village. Two of the shells landed on the deserted football pitch, a third destroyed part of the wall between the school and the football pitch and a fourth landed in the teachers' houses. Fortunately the school is closed for the holidays and the teachers are away. Thus no one was injured.

 

A safe haven, a formerly disused building, now heavily reinforced with concrete, has been organised for children and staff of the village to which they retreated during the fighting.

 

According to project director Claudio Croce stray bullets also landed in the compound, resulting from nearby gunfire. Because of the fighting, staff who live outside the compound are not able to come to work. This is also affecting the hospital which is still open, but due to a shortage of medical personnel, is not fully functional.

 

Croce added that the situation in Mogadishu is chaotic. Besides the fighting between the transitional government, backed by Ethiopian forces and former elements of the Islamic Courts, clan warfare has also broken out and many of the people from these clans live in the vicinity of the village. He likened the situation to the beginnings of a guerrilla war.

 

The SOS Children's Village meanwhile is fully operational and contingency plans remain in place to protect the 82 children, 13 youth and approximately 30 co-workers who live in the village.

 

Source: SOS, April 20, 2007

[A.J.]

General Duke will probably tell us this was done to root out UIC insurgents-

 

anyone else notice how his phrases are the same as the once used by the american army in Iraq

[xiinfaniin]

Heavy fighting resumes in Somali capital

 

Friday, April 20, 2007

 

Mogadishu, Somalia (AFP) - Heavy fighting between Ethiopian forces and Islamist insurgents resumed in the Somali capital Friday with exchanges of machine-gun fire and mortar shells, witnesses said.

 

Ethiopian forces fired mortar shells from the presidential palace in southern Mogadishu at insurgents in the north of the city, who fired back, an AFP correspondent said.

 

"The fighting has resumed, we can hear machine-gun fire. The Ethiopians are firing mortar shells," said Fahad Gutale, a resident of Ex-Control area in northern Mogadishu.

 

"Artillery shells are landing everywhere."

 

There were no immediate reports of casualties as the area remained inaccessible.

 

On Thursday, fighting claimed the lives of at least nine civilians and wounded several others after mortar shells landed at a bus station in southern Mogadishu.

 

Ethiopian forces also blocked a key road after a suspected suicide bomber attacked their base south of the capital late Thursday, trapping fleeing civilians.

 

Four days of fighting that broke out late last month was the worst violence in Mogadishu for 15 years and efforts to agree a lasting ceasefire have been dogged by clashes.

 

Elders from Mogadishu's dominant ****** clan have accused the Ethiopians of refusing to withdraw from the frontline, attacking the insurgents and shattering a fragile ceasefire.

 

Elders have said at least 1,000 people have died and more than 4,000 have been wounded in the fighting. The UN refugee agency said more than 200,000 have fled Mogadishu in the past two months.

 

The UN humanitarian office said government forces were choking relief supplies, UN aircraft were being shot at, corpses were lying in the streets of the capital, while a cholera or diarrhoea epidemic was taking hold and new flooding was likely soon.

 

"We are extremely anxious to reach the displaced population especially since most of them are women and children under the age of 14. These are the most vulnerable people in any community," said Christian Balslev-Olesen, the UNICEF Somalia representative, said in a statement.

 

"And so we reiterate our call to all parties involved in the conflict to do everything within their power to allow us to reach those who need our assistance the most," he added.

 

Source: AFP, April 20, 2007

[xiinfaniin]

Gun fight continues in the Somali Capital for the second consecutive day

Aweys Osman Yusuf

 

Mogadishu 20, April.07 ( Sh.M.Network) A Sporadic gun battle continues in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday. Hundreds of families were fleeing the volatile city as Ethiopian troops launched several missiles from the Mogadishu presidential compound while the insurgents were returning mortar shells targeting Ethiopian military bases in north of the capital where both forces are facing off.

 

Heavy fighting which occurred in the capital on Thursday sparked the largest mass departure. More than 20 are believed to have perished and nearly 100 were wounded, according to Medina hospital in south of Mogadishu where most of the civilians wounded in the battle between the Ethiopian forces and insurgents have been admitted.

 

Number of people who were wounded in the fighting late yesterday afternoon was stranded in north neighborhoods of the capital. Medina hospital staff, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not entitled to talk with the press, told Shabelle that at least 14 civilians were admitted to the hospital on Friday morning.

 

The main road linking the capital to southern provinces of the country were blocked by the Ethiopian forces after a suicide bomber drove a small Toyota crammed in explosive devices into Former government army compound where a contingent of Ethiopian forces was based. The number of Ethiopian casualties was unknown yet.

 

Three Ethiopian soldiers were wounded yesterday after a mine exploded their military convoy passing by the road between Mogadishu and Afgoi, south of the country. In response to the explosion the soldiers riddled a passenger bus passing nearby with bullets killing a woman and wounding at least eight other civilians on board the bus, as Mohammed Ahmed, one of the passengers told Shabelle.

Four days of heavy fighting that broke out late last month was the worst in Mogadishu for 15 years and efforts to compromise to a lasting ceasefire have been bogged down by the ongoing skirmishes.

The spokesman for Mogadishu’s major clan, ******, Mohammed Hassan Haad, revealed yesterday that the fragile ceasefire was broken by Ethiopian troops.

 

“The ceasefire was broken. The Ethiopian troops invaded positions of the forces of rebels. They tricked us by signing a ceasefire deal with us while they were getting prepared militarily. We will defend ourselves because they clearly violated the ceasefire agreement,” he said.

 

The UN has indicated more than 200,000 people fled the capital Mogadishu since the fighting began late March.

[xiinfaniin]

More Somali fighting amid crisis

 

Friday, April 20, 2007

 

 

 

Fighting has resumed in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, following UN warnings of a humanitarian disaster.

"My house was crashed, collapsed by the mortars of the Ethiopian troops," resident Isa Gedi told the BBC.

 

"One of my sons died," he said by telephone, as shots could be heard in clashes between Ethiopia-backed government troops and insurgents.

 

Only fighters and men protecting their property are in the city as women and children have fled, aid workers say.

 

The main route used by people fleeing Mogadishu has been closed after a Ethiopian convoy on the road was mined and a blast at a nearby military base on Thursday.

 

Clashes in pictures

 

More than 200,000 people have fled their homes since Ethiopian troops helped the government oust an Islamist group from Mogadishu in December, the UN says.

 

Most people lacked food and water and hundreds had already died from cholera and diarrhoea, UN humanitarian co-ordinator Eric Laroche said.

 

"It is time that we get access to the people in Mogadishu," he said.

 

BBC East Africa correspondent Adam Mynott says the displaced are living scattered across southern and central Somalia in appalling conditions.

 

There are also claims that the transitional government has blocked aid from getting to some of those who need it.

 

But these have been strongly denied by the Ethiopian government, which says there is a need tom monitor aid operations to prevent attacks.

 

'Improving'

 

Correspondents say the shelling on Friday started at 0630 local time (0330 GMT) and is gaining momentum.

 

"The rest of my family fled because they could not [bear to] see the flesh of my son, who is lying in the middle of the house," Mr Gedi told the BBC World Today programme.

 

 

The artillery is being fired from the central presidential palace to the northern insurgent strongholds of Yakshid and Heli-waa.

 

However, President Abdullahi Yusuf told the BBC that the situation was slowly improving, blaming the latest violence on the Islamists.

 

"Our aim is to protect the public and the government from attacks of these remnants of the Union of Islamic Courts [uIC] because they are assassinating everyone to reckon with in Somalia who they think would sympathise with the government," he told the BBC.

 

He also said the unpopular Ethiopians would have withdrawn by now if the violence had not continued.

 

At least 20 people were killed on Thursday, with heavy artillery being used in residential areas.

 

Eyewitnesses said there had also been a big explosion at an Ethiopian army three-story complex south of the city.

 

Some reports suggest it was a suicide car bomb attack.

 

An eyewitness told the BBC Somali service the rising debris and smoke looked like a "flying mountain".

 

He said people fleeing the area around the told him that after the blast Ethiopian troops started firing at people passing by; bodies are reported to be strewn along the street.

 

Intensified

 

The insurgents are believed to be a mixture of Islamist fighters and militiamen from the ****** clan - the largest in Mogadishu.

 

Violence has intensified this year after the relative calm when the UIC ran the city.

 

Somalia has not had an effective national government for 16 years.

 

Last month, more than 1,000 people were killed in the heaviest fighting sine 1991.

 

The Ethiopian troops have started to withdraw, to be replaced by an African Union peacekeeping force.

 

But only 1,200 troops, of the 8,000 the AU says it needs, have been deployed.

 

Source: BBC, April 20, 2007

[Xoogsade]

Xiin, thanks for the update bro, keep up the good work.

[Faarax-Brawn]

He also said the unpopular Ethiopians would have withdrawn by now if the violence had not continued.

Mhmmmmm....Now those are some really wise words from the Prezz.

[xiinfaniin]

Many thanks to you yaa Xoogga. You know, you are in a position to breif us all. Chip in and talk about the real experiences that're being conveyed to you from Xamar bro. Some may enjoy it here, and but there are others who understand that Somalis inaysan kala maarmin, and that force will never bring any solution to our conflict...

 

Faarax, i dont think the man understands what he says. He's really traped, and more likely will end up killing more people than he already did in his life.

[Faarax-Brawn]

Faarax, i dont think the man understands what he says. He's really traped, and more likely will end up killing more people than he already did in his life.

May he see the light,Amen

[Fabregas]

Waxaaba ka daran Adiss Ababa buu kaso hadlaya.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

 

To those who are not familiar or not been to SOOS, there it is. A SOLer took that picture in 2005, which she shared with us.

 

It still looks beautiful, SOOS along with Isbitaal Madiina being few public institutions that escaped from the wrath and descruction of dagaallada sokeeye.