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Somalia crisis deepens as new fighting erupts
Somalia today lurched closer to a humanitarian catastrophe as a new offensive began against insurgents in the capital, Mogadishu.
Ethiopian tanks shelled insurgent positions on the eighth day of fighting in which around 300 people have so far been killed. Ethiopian forces, backing the weak interim Somali government, closed in on rebel areas in the north of the city.
"We are under heavy artillery and tank shelling," a fighter belonging to the capital's dominant Hawiye clan told Reuters. "The Ethiopians are using whatever forces and material they have. This is the heaviest attack we've seen since the war started."
At least 20 people - most of them civilians - died when rockets and tank shells landed in different neighbourhoods.
One shell slammed through the roof of a children's hospital, exploding in a ward housing between 20 and 30 injured adults, Wilhelm Huber, the regional director for the SOS Children's Villages charity, said.
Children had been evacuated from the compound earlier because of shelling, Mr Huber said.
He said people had been injured in the shelling, but did not have further details because of the chaotic situation and also because wounded people were already on the ward.
"What is happening now cannot go on," he told the Associated Press from his base in Nairobi, Kenya. "People are desperate. This is a tragic situation."
More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2066113,00.html
"We are under heavy artillery and tank shelling," a fighter belonging to the capital's dominant Hawiye clan told Reuters. "The Ethiopians are using whatever forces and material they have. This is the heaviest attack we've seen since the war started."
At least 20 people - most of them civilians - died when rockets and tank shells landed in different neighbourhoods.
One shell slammed through the roof of a children's hospital, exploding in a ward housing between 20 and 30 injured adults, Wilhelm Huber, the regional director for the SOS Children's Villages charity, said.
Children had been evacuated from the compound earlier because of shelling, Mr Huber said.
He said people had been injured in the shelling, but did not have further details because of the chaotic situation and also because wounded people were already on the ward.
"What is happening now cannot go on," he told the Associated Press from his base in Nairobi, Kenya. "People are desperate. This is a tragic situation."
More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2066113,00.html
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The Somali government, and its Ethiopian backers, are trying to restore order after the ousting of a brief, and relatively peaceful, period of Islamist rule, four months ago.
But the new, transitional, secular government is said to lack the trust of the people who, though accustomed to chaos in the past decade and a half, are increasingly being caught in the crossfire of the latest offensive. Around 1500 people have died so far this month. Mogadishu is said to be becoming a ghost town.
http://euronews.net/index.php?page=info&article=418976&lng=1
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have witnessed most phases of the fighting in Somalia since the ouster of President Siad Barre [in 1991] but what is happening now is just beyond belief.
I never thought that there would come a time when I would be forced to jump over decaying bodies as I fled the fighting.
Tears constantly rolled down my cheeks on seeing the number of innocent people killed and as I had to hop over them, along with my five children when we were escaping Mogadishu.
People say that 1,000 people have died during the fighting this month but I believe the number is higher - some died in the bushes where they could not be reached. They either starved or bled to death from injuries sustained during the fighting.
Life was even not easy for us as we fled, we had to pay about $20 (£10) each to board the lorry that was ferrying people to Afgooye and other parts of Somalia and safety.
The journey to the Kenyan border was hard, it was the worst experience for my family and especially for my children, more so the youngest, who is only three years old.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6584671.stm
Ali Mohamed Ghedi said the worst of the fighting against Islamists and clan gunmen was now over.
Columns of tanks were deployed and reinforcements sent to Mogadishu from other parts of Somalia.
Earlier, a BBC correspondent in the city said the battles were the heaviest in recent days, spreading to new areas.
United Nations humanitarian relief co-ordinator John Holmes has described the situation in Somalia as critical.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6594603.stm