Warring factions clashed for the fourth day Saturday in the north of Somali capital Mogadishu as heavy gunbattles claimed five more lives, bringing the death toll to 52 and more than 200 injured, medical and militia sources said. “Warring militamen in the capital are fighting heavily for the fourth day and there is no sign of calm,” said Ahmed Mohamed Jumale, a resident in Galagalato, a neighbourhood of Karan district in northern Mogadishu where the rival fighters are engaged in battle. Jumale said that the gunmen intensified fighting in order to inflict more casualties on either side before darkness. “The serious fighting erupted at noon,” Jumale said. A nurse at Kaisaney Surgical Hospital said that the main medical facility near the battle ground had received 139 casualties since Wednesday when the fighting began, some of whom were treated and discharged. “Five died in our hospital of the injuries they sustained. The rest were treated and left, while some stayed for further treatment,” said the nurse, who asked not to be named. Kaisaney is the largest war hospital in Somalia, funded by the International Committee of the Red Cross and run by the Somali Red Crescent Society.
The fighting was sparked by a row over land ownership in which one militia leader, Abukar Omar Adan, a staunch supporter of the Islamic courts, attempted to grab the piece of land attached to the Aisaley airport north of the capital and which is controlled by rival warlord Bashir Raghe Shirar. The two men belong to the Warsangale sub-clan of Abgal within the larger Hawiye which is dominant in Mogadishu and its surroundings, but they have different political affiliations. Adan is allied to the Islamic courts of Mogadishu, which control pockets of the lawless capital, while Shirar is a co-founder of the newly formed Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) which is opposed to the growing influence of the Islamic courts.