Exodus from Mogadishu after deadly attacks

[Hiiraan boy]

Mogadishu mayor denies mass exodus as new Somali insurgent group vows to fight Ethiopian troops.


By Mustafa Haji Abdinur

MOGADISHU - Thousands of terrified civilians poured out of the Somali capital on Saturday after heavy fighting between Ethiopian troops and gunmen overnight left at least 10 people dead.

Some residents scrambled into passenger vans while most just grabbed household items and left on foot for the relative calm of the surrounding countryside where food is scarce.

"I was very scared yesterday after I heard the heaviest explosion ever in the capital," said Adan Dirir Bare, a resident of southern Mogadishu.

"I had insisted a lot on staying in Mogadishu but not now."

A mother of five, Sahro Ali Mohamed, said houses in her Mogadishu neighbourhood were deserted.

"People cannot endure the heavy artillery and mortar exchange that kills people every time," she said as she left with her family in tow.

Five children were among the dead from clashes late Friday, apparently killed when caught in crossfire, witnesses said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Saturday issued a plea to all warring parties to comply with the rules of international humanitarian law to protect civilians.

It urged them "to take constant care in the conduct of military operations to safeguard the lives and dignity of the civilian population."

This week has seen some of the heaviest fighting in the capital since late December when the Islamic courts movement was driven out by the interim Somali government and its Ethiopian allies.

The government and the Ethiopians blame remnants of the Islamic courts for stoking the violence.

A top Somali army commander on Saturday accused unnamed foreign countries of funding the insurgency.

"The assailants are loyal to those who want to create violence in the capital and they are being funded by foreign countries," Said Dhere told reporters here.

"We know who is behind the attacks and we will crack down on them soon."

In the past, Somalia has blamed Ethiopia's arch foe Eritrea for funding the rebel fighters.

Analysts say Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has failed to create an all-inclusive government including elders and warlords from powerful sub-clans suspected of organising the raids.

Rival militias of clan warlords carved up Somalia after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.

Somlia is anxiously awaiting the deployment of an 8,000-strong African Union force to try to help the transitional government restore order in Mogadishu. The deployment was approved last Tuesday by the UN Security Council.

But the AU has so far managed to raise only half of the required peacekeepers, with troop pledges from Nigeria, Burundi, Malawi and Ghana as well as Uganda.

In a statement posted on a suspected Islamist website, a group calling itself Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations, which is accused of threatening peacekeepers, vowed to carry out more attacks.

"We vow to welcome ammunition from heavy guns, exploding cars and young fighters determined to carry out martyrdom operations against these troops," according to a statement read by a gunmen.

Uganda's Deputy Defence Minister Ruth Nankabirwa said on Friday that Uganda was now waiting for air transport from Algeria to begin its deployment.

On Friday, the New York Times reported that the US airforce used bases in eastern Ethiopia to launch attacks on suspected extremist positions in Somalia, a claim that was expected to fuel the insurgency in the lawless nation.

But Addis Ababa dismissed the report as "baseless."

"Ethiopia has repeatedly made it clear that it has not secured any assistance from any country in its counterattack measures against the (Somali) terrorists," the information ministry said in a statement.

More than 14 internationally-backed attempts to create a functional Somali government have foundered since 1991.

Mogadishu mayor denies mass exodus

While many Somalis continued to flee their strife-torn capital, the mayor of Mogadishu on Sunday played down reports that thousands were deserting their homes.

Ade Ali Gabow said that the city was returning to calm and said reports that thousands were escaping the worst violence since December were exaggerated.

"You know this has been a ghost town which has had no peace for a long time so people fleeing is not big news, as long as it is not exaggerated," Gabow said.

"This city is calm and I don't think more people are fleeing, so I ask the media not to overstate what is happening in the capital."

Meanwhile a previously unknown insurgent group calling itself the Somali Popular Defence Army, claiming to be founded by Somali military veterans, vowed late Saturday to fight Ethiopia, Kenya and the United States.

"We have seen that three enemies have made an alliance in humiliating our fame and religion and they are America, Ethiopia and Kenya," the group said in a statement posted on a suspected Islamist web site.