Associated Press
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Radical Islamic militiamen battling secular rivals for control of part of Somalia’s capital said they would observe a cease-fire in response to pleas from civilians after three days of fighting killed at least 75 people.
Gunmen loyal to Mogadishu’s Islamic courts would observe the cease-fire starting late Tuesday, said Islamic Court Union chairman Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed.
Their secular rivals, however, said they were suspicious of the plan and leaders were planning to discuss whether to accept the cease-fire offer.
“The Islamists have ran out of ammunition, so they want to get breathing space for mobilization and rearming their militia,” said Hussein Gutaale, spokesman of the secular militias.
Nuur Daqle, a senior commander of the secular militiamen, said the force was willing to end the fighting if their rivals did. “The fighting is street battle, no side can get the upper hand – the civilians are those suffering most,” he said.
Medical workers in five hospitals said at least 75 people have been killed since the fighting began Sunday and more than 100 have been wounded, according to a joint statement. Most of the victims have been civilians, including a 5-month-old baby who was shot in the back, said Shariif Dahir Guure, a nurse at the Shifo Hospital.
Somalia has had no effective central government since 1991, when warlords ousted longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other – carving this nation of an estimated 8 million people into a patchwork of anarchic, clan-based fiefdoms. A U.N.-backed transitional government has based itself in the central city of Baidoa, but has so far failed to assert itself elsewhere.
Islamic fundamentalists have portrayed themselves as an alternative capable of bringing order and peace to the country, although they have not hesitated to use force and have allegedly linked up with al-Qaida terrorists.
Source: Associated Press, May 10, 2006
