At least 12 people were killed and 29 were wounded after fighting erupted between militias from rival clans in the village of Herale in central Somalia on Sunday, elders said. Village elder Ahmed Osman, contacted by radio on Sunday, described the fighting as "intense" and said that residents had fled Herale by the time the violence subsided in the afternoon, but with no ceasefire agreement. "Most residents abandoned the village, but left behind a strong militia to guard civilian property," Osman said. The fighting pitted the Marehan against the Dir clans, who have previously lived side by side peacefully in Abudwaaq, a district in Somalia’s Galgudud region. The latest clashes are part of tit-for-tat confrontations resulting from the April 2003 murder of a Marehan elder, allegedly by Dir clansmen. The Dir are affiliated with the Southern Somalia National Movement (SSNM) of several sub-clan factions, while the Marehan belong to another factional grouping, the Somalia National Front (SNF). Both were among 27 factions that signed a ceasefire agreement in Kenya on October 27, 2002, to stop all hostilities in the war-torn Horn of Africa nation.
| Yeah. But that's business. This is personal. It's different. |
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