| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa: Horn |
| Fresh fighting in Somalia as PM visits to ease tensions |
| 2005-05-08 |
| Fresh clashes erupted in Somalia's southern port of Kismayo, forcing the prime minister to cancel a planned tour of the town, officials said on Saturday. Disagreements among rival militia groups from Marehan clan triggered the fighting, with some sharply opposed to Prime Minister Ali Gedi's visit to Kismayo while others supported it, officials said. "There have been clashes in Kismayo engineered by those opposed to the prime minister's visit. We have no idea of casualties but the place is unstable," said an official at the prime minister's office in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Officials said militias supporting the chairman of the Jubba Valley Alliance Barre Aden Shire wanted Gedi to visit Kismayo but his opponents were against it. Other officials said Shire's house was attacked on Friday. A spokesman for the Juba Valley Alliance Abdulahi Sheikh said the attack was carried out by a group of militias who were unhappy because they had not been paid their salaries and had nothing to do with the prime minister's visit. Officials said Gedi had decided not to go Kismayo as planned and would return to Nairobi later on Saturday. The clashes are the latest to hit Gedi's first visit to Somalia since taking office last year. At least 14 people died on Tuesday after a blast rocked a Mogadishu football stadium moments after the Somali prime minister spoke to supporters. The cause of the explosion was not clear but Gedi, who was not hurt, initially said the blast appeared to be accidental. Security officials working with the government are investigating. No one has claimed responsibility. Gedi flew to Somalia on April 29 in an effort to heal a rift in his fledgling government over where it should first make its home when it returns to Somalia from Kenya. The interim Somali government, the 14th attempt at government in as many years, has been based in the Kenyan capital Nairobi since its formation last year after peace talks. But foreign donors and governments are pressuring the Somali administration to go home and establish its legitimacy, a task complicated by the lack of security there. Gedi and MPs aligned with him would prefer to base themselves in the safer cities of Baidoa and Jowhar and move to Mogadishu once its multitude of militiamen are disarmed and security re-established. Other MPs insist Mogadishu -- Somalia's most dangerous place -- must be the capital as stipulated in the transitional constitution. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 That worked well, didn't it. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-05-08 15:35 |