May 16, 2006, 08:45
Angry clan elders in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, have deployed their own fighters to secure a truce after an eight-day battle in which more than 150 people have been killed. The worst fighting in 15 years in the capital has sent hundreds of terrified civilians fleeing mortars, rockets and heavy machine guns.
The fighting halted on Sunday after the elders demanded a truce between Islamic fighters and warlord militias. Pedran Yazdi of Somalia’s International Committee of the Red Cross, civilians have been hit hard by the fighting.
“Of course there are a lot of casualties among civilians. The civilians are fleeing the fighting. We are trying to assist because we’ve noticed that there’s a displacement of the population with sheltering material.”
Source: SABCnews, May 16, 2006
