SOMALIA: Fighting rocks Mogadishu near children's hospice

Record ID: 374938

  • Title: SOMALIA: Fighting rocks Mogadishu near children's hospice
  • Date: 9th August 2007
  • Summary: WOUNDED IN HOSPITAL (SOUNDBITE) (Somali) MARWO MOHAMED, MOGADISHU RESIDENT, SAYING: "My back got injured when the fighting started last night, I couldn't get any help until morning as heavy fighting continued." MORE OF INJURED CIVILIANS AT THE HOSPITAL
  • Embargoed: 24th August 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Reuters ID: LVA9HDZ7LQ9HKWGHY6BFLRZGIKQY
  • Story Text: Mogadishu residents flee as fighting rocks Somalia's capital Mogadishu.
    Heavy fighting rocked the capital Mogadishu overnight on Thursday (August 9) and terrified residents living near a children's home as Somali insurgents and government troops engaged each other.
    Although a peace conference is taking place in Mogadishu, daily violence continues in the coastal city as Islamist-led insurgents target the Somali government and its Ethiopian military allies.
    Witnesses said insurgents fired rockets at a troop position near the SOS hospital and children's home in north Mogadishu, sparking a firefight that lasted into the early hours.
    "Fighting started around my area at about 11 at night around 11pm, one of my family member was killed while two others were wounded,"
    said Mogadishu resident Rukia Omar.
    Locals fled their homes, some taking refuge in the hospice.
    Local hospitals were fighting to save some civilians who were caught up by the fighting.
    "My back got injured when the fighting started last night, I couldn't get any help until morning as heavy fighting continued," said an injured resident Marwo Mohamed as he received treatment at the hospital.
    The national reconciliation conference in Somalia has had little impact on the fighting, even providing an extra target for insurgents at its outset.
    But organisers insist the fact it is still going on is itself a major achievement in a nation riven by anarchy and violence since the 1991 ousting of a dictator by warlords.
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