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| Africa: East |
| 9 killed in Somalia festivities |
| 2004-01-19 |
| Nine people were killed in fighting in central Somalia between rival militiamen of the same clan in a dispute over a proposed alliance with Ethiopia, witnesses said on Monday. They said the gunfight involving AK-47 assault rifles and machineguns, which also wounded 12 people, erupted on Sunday due to widening differences over an attempt by one faction in the Galje’el clan to seek support from Addis Ababa. The dominant power in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia is a traditional rival of Somalia but maintains alliances with several Somali factions to try to minimise what it calls the terrorist threat from the lawless country. The clash broke out on Sunday afternoon at Beletwein town, capital of Hiran region 350 km (210 miles) north of Mogadishu near the border with Ethiopia, residents said. It was the fourth such battle in Beletwein in a week and the heaviest yet. Residents said the violence involved supporters and opponents of a recent visit to Ethiopia by some elders of the clan seeking support from the neighbouring country. Ethiopia is a close observer of peace talks between Somali faction leaders in Kenya aimed at reviving a stalled peace process for the country, carved into rival territories since the central government was overthrown in 1991. Kenya said on Monday that growing tension between two rival northern regions could destabilise the talks aimed at bringing peace to the whole of the country after a decade of bloodshed. At least two people in the enclave of Somaliland were killed in fighting between the forces of Somaliland and of the rival Puntland region earlier this month. The two territories have fought sporadic clashes for years over the ownership of several eastern areas of Somaliland that Puntland’s leaders claim as their own on the basis of ethnicity. "I would like to call upon both parties to exercise maximum restraint and shun from plunging the region into a conflict that is clearly avoidable," Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka told a news conference. Somaliland leaders are not involved in the peace gathering, saying they have no intention of reuniting Somaliland with the rest of Somalia. A former British protectorate, Somaliland split from Somalia in 1991 after a long independence struggle, taking advantage of the chaos that followed the fall of Barre. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |