Somalia: Mogadishu exodus resumes as 15 killed one day

[Hiiraan boy]

(SomaliNet) Residents living in some parts of the Somalia capital Mogadishu began on Wednesday to flee their homes after yesterday’s deadly violence, which killed 15 civilians and wounded more than 30 others, medical sources say.

The latest violence came hours after Somalia president Abdulahi Yusuf secretly arrived in Mogadishu on Tuesday. Several mortar rounds have been fired into the presidential palace a time Mr. Yusuf was in but he was unhurt, officials said.

Women and children with their belongings some onboard trucks could be seen this morning on the streets of the capital heading to nearby regions to escape the stray shelling falling into the civilian villages.

The fleeing people expressed their deep concern over the renewed clashes that raged in the capital between militants and government forces with the help of the Ethiopian forces which left 15 people dead and more than 30 wounded whose houses were hit by stray rocket rounds.

Some of the residents could not afford to hire cars for displacing and instead preferred to go on foot to the outskirts of the capital for safe grounds.

Most of the wounded people were taken to Medina hospital in south of Mogadishu. The hospital received the largest number of injured persons since the violence began after the ouster of the Islamic Courts Union by the Ethiopian backed government troops late December last year.

A family of a woman and her children among the displaced people from the capital told the media that they had left Mogadishu after they could not stand with the constant artillery and mortar shells being exchanged over the city.

[eyes-only]

Ilaahey ha u gargaaro