33 persons killed in clashes in Somalia

1/18/2005

Some 33 persons were at least killed in two separate clashes between warring tribal militias and competing gangs to the north and center of Somalia.

The continued clashes reflects the extent of the difficult mission of the new interim government which emerged from the peace conference which was held in Kenya recently with the aim to end the state of chaos and fighting among groups which have been sharing control on the Somali lands since the collapse of Seyad Berri regime in 1991.

Witnesses said that the clashes erupted on Monday in the northern Eir Gabo town following the assassination of a businessman that trades in "Qat" (a sort of popular Hashish in Yemen and neighboring areas widely used by common people). Security sources said that acts of violence were speedily deployed in the neighboring villages, where supporters of the killed businessman attacked the supporters of a rival to him and this resulted in killing 17 persons and injuring scores others.

At least 16 persons were killed and other 33 injured in a fighting that erupted in a village in Modog district in the center of Somalia between warring tribal militias over a conflict on lands. Fighting between the two sides resulted in killing 100 persons in 2004.

Worthy mentioning that the civil war, drought and diseases killed hundreds of thousands of Somalis since the beginning of the 1970s. The interference of both the USA and the UN did not succeed in ending the crisis.

An interim government formed in recent years by Abdi Qasem Salat Hassan in Djibouti that failed to control the security situation. This mission was left for the new Interim government led by Abdullah Youssef. This government is due to return back to the country within the few coming months.