[DEBATE] : Thousands flee Somali bombardment

[Riaz K Tayob]

Thousands flee Somali bombardment
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People leaving Mogadishu

Thousands of people have been fleeing renewed fighting between African 
Union peacekeepers and Islamist insurgents in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

The peacekeepers, who came under heavy attack for the third day running, 
said they had to use unusually tough measures to repulse the insurgents.

A local human rights worker told the BBC that up to 18,000 people had fled.

At least 45 civilians have died since Monday in some of the worst 
violence Mogadishu has seen in months.

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says Islamist insurgents 
have been gaining ground in the city in their fight against the 
Ethiopian-backed government.

    
I have escaped from my house because throughout last night artillery 
shells had been pounding on us
Elderly man in Mogadishu
Observers say there has been a change in tactics, with Islamists 
switching from hit-and-run raids to sustained attacks against peacekeepers.

Somalia has been wracked by conflict since 1991, when former President 
Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown.

Ethiopia intervened in 2006 to help the government oust Islamist forces 
from the capital and surrounding regions.

The Islamists then launched an insurgency against Somalia's transitional 
government and its Ethiopian allies.

'Deafening gunfire'

Tuesday's clashes happened in the south of the city.

    
Ugandan peacekeepers preparing to go to Somalia

Peacekeepers mired in Somalia
Our reporter says heavily armed insurgents attacked the AU base at K4 - 
a strategic junction in the south of the city linking the airport and 
the presidential palace.

The sounds of deafening gunfire and bombardments could be heard 
throughout the city overnight, our correspondent says.

Peacekeepers have generally been considered friendly since their arrival 
last year, and residents have been upset by the scale of their 
retaliation, our reporter says.

Maj Bahoku Barigye, an spokesman for the African Union Mission to 
Somalia (Amisom), said the peacekeepers had not suffered any causalities 
and were acting in self defence.

"We are not using any heavy arms," he told the BBC.

"We target a specific area where people are shooting at us from, and 
that is it, we don't go outside, we don't go beyond that."

'Shocking'

Our correspondent says people living by the AU bases are fleeing their 
homes - on minibuses, donkey carts or on foot.

    
The only way out of this mess at the moment is to have a successful 
negotiation
Academic David Shinn
"We could no longer watch the shocking incidents and what happened to 
our neighbours, who were either killed or injured, my children could not 
bear the shelling, that is why I have decided to escape," a mother of 
five told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

An elderly man said: "I have escaped from my house because throughout 
last night artillery shells had been pounding on us."

Local human rights worker Ali Shiekh Yaasiin said an estimated 15,000 to 
18,000 people had left the city in the past few days to join other 
displaced people outside the city.

David Shinn, a former US diplomat who teaches at the George Washington 
University, said fighters from the hardline al-Shabab militia were 
trying to assert their authority in order to force the Ethiopians out.

They are trying "to show that they are in a position to perhaps even 
take control of Mogadishu if the Ethiopian forces were to leave", he 
told the BBC.

'No lost cause'

People fleeing Mogadishu on Tuesday 23 September, 2008
People have started fleeing the worst violence in months

Maj Barigye said it was unrealistic to expect a quick resolution to 
Somalia's long-running conflict.

"There is no lost cause here," he said.

"It's just a question of time, a question of patience, it's a question 
of tolerance, it's a question of understanding."

Only Uganda and Burundi have contributed troops to the AU peacekeeping 
force, which has just 2,000 troops of the 8,000 planned.

But Mr Shinn said adding more peacekeepers would not help.

"The only way out of this mess at the moment is to have a successful 
negotiation between moderates and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of 
Somalia, the ARS, and the transitional federal government," he said.

The UN has been leading peace negotiations over Somalia in neighbouring 
Djibouti, but al-Shabab has so far rejected the process.

A ceasefire due to be signed at the end of last week has been delayed 
for another month.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7632823.stm