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Clan fighting kills dozens
06/03/2004 13:59 - (SA)
Mogadishu, Somalia - Fighting between rival clans in central Somalia over grazing land and wells left nearly four dozen people dead, a village elder said on Saturday.
The clashes between the Saleemaan and Duduble clans began on Wednesday around the village of Hiin Gaduud, about 250km northeast of Mogadishu, as clan fighters battled with assault weapons, said Aadan Ugas.
Details were sketchy, but he said that by Friday the clans were using rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns to attack each other and 47 people, most of them clan fighters, had been killed.
More than 70 others were wounded in the fighting, which appeared to have subsided on Saturday, Ugas said.
Top militia and clan leaders are meeting at peace talks in neighbouring Kenya, attempting to restore a central government to Somalia. The nation of 8 million people collapsed into warring, clan-based fiefdoms in 1991, when rebels forced dictator Mohamed Siad Barre from power.
Despite an agreement signed in January by the country's traditional leaders and warlords to form a transitional government, progress has been slow at the talks and sporadic fighting between rival clans and militias has continued in Somalia.
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