Mogadishu, Oct. 1 (AFP) – At least 21 people were killed and several others wounded when two rival ethnic Somali clans clashed over land ownership in a village southeast of Ethiopia near the border with Somalia, witnesses said on Sunday.
They said the fighting erupted after armed raiders from one clan invaded their rivals on Saturday in Da’dheer village in Ethiopia’s Ogaden region which is inhabited mainly by Somali ethnic groups.
“The fighting engaged armed men from the Suleiman sub-clan of Hawiye against those of Marehan sub-clan of Darod,” said Abdurisak Aden, a member of the Suleiman sub-clan.
He added that 13 people from his clan had been killed in the violence.
“We have lost eight people,” Abdulkarim Salat Ali, an elder from Marehan sub-clan told AFP, adding that 33 people in total had been wounded in the clashes.
An Islamic court official in Addado in Somalia’s central Galgudud region near the scene of the clashes said the fighting had not stopped and blamed Ethiopian authorities for failing to intervene.
“The fighting took place in the Ethiopian village inhabited by Somalis. It is the responsibility of Ethiopia to stop the violence,” Sheikh Dahir Hassan Gutale, the Islamic court chairperson in Addado, told AFP.
“The fighting has been going on since Saturday (Saturday) and Ethiopia is not helping to abate the violence,” he added, saying that 10 wounded people had been brought to Addado.
Source: AFP, Oct. 1, 2006
