SOMALIA: Somali civilians caught up in Mogadishu fighting say Ethiopian troops have failed to provide security

Record ID: 785446

  • Title: SOMALIA: Somali civilians caught up in Mogadishu fighting say Ethiopian troops have failed to provide security
  • Date: 28th October 2007
  • Summary: MOGADISHU RESIDENTS INCLUDING CHILDREN SHOUTING "ALLAHU AKBAR" WOMAN AND GIRLS PROTESTING MORE DEMONSTRATORS CROWD MOVES DOWN STREET
  • Embargoed: 12th November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAET4KNK68C60OKX1E1NATQXAAY
  • Story Text: Somalis have taken to the streets of Mogadishu to protest against clashes between Ethiopian troops and suspected insurgents. Mogadishu has been rocked by some of the worst fighting in weeks and scores of civilians have been injured in crossfire.
    Hundreds of Somali civilians took to the streets of Mogadishu on Sunday (October 28) to protest against hostilities pitting Ethiopian-backed government troops and insurgents against each other in the Somali capital.
    The clashes between Ethiopian and government troops and Islamist-led rebels over the previous two days had been the heaviest for weeks. At least 15 people, including as many as seven Ethiopian soldiers, had been killed in the recent fighting, local media reports stated.
    Dozens of civilians were wounded by stray bullets and shrapnel.
    Civilians are angry at both sides for fighting in the city centre among thousands of women and children, but the protests on Sunday were directed against Ethiopian and Somali government troops.
    The protesters burnt tyres and shouted 'Allahu Akbar', or 'God is Great', as they blocked several streets. They said the Ethiopian troops have failed to provide security and blamed them for the fighting.

    "They have killed our people and they have raped our women. We don't have any security, so we decided to fight for ourselves," one of the demonstrators said.
    The fragile Somali government has been shaken by an insurgency of Iraq-style roadside bombings, assassinations and suicide attacks since it routed a hardline Islamist movement in January with the help of Ethiopian tanks and warplanes.
    The latest battles with the rebels, which Somalia's government says include foreign extremists linked to al Qaeda, come as tensions at the top of the fledgling Somali administration threaten to split it wide open.
    Analysts say President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi have feuded almost from the moment they came to power in late 2004 following two years of peace talks in Kenya.
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