SOMALIA: Fighting in Mogadishu kills at least 7 and leaves scores injured

Record ID: 375495

  • Title: SOMALIA: Fighting in Mogadishu kills at least 7 and leaves scores injured
  • Date: 4th April 2010
  • Summary: GROUP ARRIVING TO VISIT WOUNDED RELATIVES BUSY MOGADISHU STREET
  • Embargoed: 19th April 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVADRCLWNQNC2RQRJHCXQ8NOHJ28
  • Story Text: Medina hospital is swamped with wounded civilians after the latest round of fighting between Islamist insurgents and the Somali transitional federal government (TFG).
    Fighting between Islamist insurgents and Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) troops together with African Union peacekeepers killed at least seven people on Friday (April 2). Scores were wounded in Somalia's capital Mogadishu.
    Rebels from the al Shabaab group exchanged gun fire and artillery shelling with TFG troops and AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) peacekeeping troops in a wave of fighting that has eclipsed the East African nation.
    The deputy head of Medina hospital said her hospital received 78 civilians wounded in the latest clashes.
    "In the last 24 hours we have received 78 wounded civilians. 42 of them were hospitalized, and nine of them are in serious condition while the rest are being given the medical care they need. Also, we received the bodies of seven children who died on their way to this hospital."
    Violence in drought-ravaged Somalia has killed at least 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and driven a further 1.5 million people from their homes, helping to trigger one of the world's most acute humanitarian emergencies.
    Somalia has had no effective government for 19 years and Western security agencies say the country has become a safe haven for Islamist militants, including foreign jihadists, who are using it to plot attacks across the region and beyond.
    The chaos onshore has allowed pirate gangs to flourish and make millions of dollars from hijacking ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
    Uganda and Burundi both have some 2,500 peacekeepers in Mogadishu with the AMISOM force that is protecting sites and Somalia's fragile Western-backed government.
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