Faction fighting kills 13 in Somalia

[Saxardiid]

Faction fighting kills 13 in Somalia

 

At least 13 people were killed and 27 have been wounded in two days of ongoing inter-clan fighting in central Somalia, local officials and witnesses said on Monday.

 

Fighting erupted Sunday between rival militiamen of the Galjel subclan of the larger ****** group, said Abdullahi Abdi Koffi, the deputy district commissioner in the town of Beletwein.

 

"Ten people were killed early on Monday while three others died late on Sunday," Koffi told AFP by telephone from the town.

 

"Elders who attempted to stop the violence and arrange a ceasefire said that warring sides have refused to listen to them," Koffi said, adding that the fighting was continuing on Monday.

 

Militia sources and elders in the Somali capital confirmed the fighting, the latest in a series of tit-for-tat confrontations between the rival sides and which are rooted in earlier feuds.

 

Inter-clan fighting is common in Somalia, which has lacked a central government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.

 

The regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has been sponsoring peace talks in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, aimed at ending anarchy and bloodshed in the Horn of Africa country.

 

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[N.O.R.F]

Fighting 'threatens Somali talks'

 

Tension between regional Somali leaders may scuttle the peace talks in Kenya, mediators have warned as fighting continues in central Somalia.

Some 13 people were killed and several others injured after inter-clan fighting over land and water in Hiirran region at the weekend.

 

Kenya's foreign affairs minister Kalonzo Musyoka has asked the leaders to exercise restraint to save the fragile negotiations.

 

Somalia has not had a government since 1991.

 

 

Military advice

 

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says the fighting in Hiirran is the worst since the faction leaders signed a ceasefire agreement last October.

 

Efforts by local Somali elders to reconcile the warring militias are proving to be futile.

 

 

Meanwhile, the president of the breakaway region of Puntland in north-east Somalia, Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed, has accused Djibouti of backing the self-declared republic of Somaliland.

 

Troops from the two regions have recently been involved in border clashes.

 

Mr Ahmed said that Djibouti was supplying arms, money and advice to authorities in Somaliland.

 

But Djibouti's foreign affairs minister Ali Abdi Faraah dismissed the claims as "sheer propaganda".

 

East Africa's Inter Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) ministerial committee, which is trying to mediate in the Somali conflict, says the tension may plunge the region into conflict.

 

Deep divisions

 

Mr Musyoka called on the international community supporting the process to prevail upon the two parties to refrain from acts that would escalate into a fully fledged conflict.

 

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni and his Kenyan counterpart, Mwai Kibaki have warned the delegates that the process has been going on for far too long.

 

The Somali peace process has so far cost over $7m with little results.

 

Interim Somali President, Abdulkassim Salat Hassan, whose delegation walked out of talks in November, was persuaded to come thanks largely to a personal invitation from Mr Museveni.

 

Correspondents say the deep divisions which exist between the different parties at the talks are plain for all to see.