Somali capital calm after ceasefire

MOGADISHU – A ceasefire yesterday allowed residents to venture into the streets of a northern Mogadishu neighbourhood that has been a battle ground for more than a week, and they recovered seven bodies that had been lying for days in a no man’s land separating Islamic militiamen from their secular rivals.

The battle for parts of Mogadishu, described as the worst fighting in more than a decade of lawlessness, has left 280 people wounded and forced thousands to flee their homes. Doctors said most of the dead were civilians killed in crossfire.Late on Sunday, the chairman of the radical Islamic Court Union militias and a senior commander for the secular fighters agreed to stop the bloodletting after clan elders threatened to unleash their own combatants on whichever side violated the cease-fire.Despite signs that the cease-fire was holding, many people were wary of returning to their homes Monday.Militiamen were still deployed at defensive positions.Traditional elders who brokered the ceasefire prepared to meet the two sides to discuss the withdrawal of fighters from the battle zone, said Hussein Ahmed Kabare, a clan elder involved in the initiative.Somalia has had no effective central government since 1991, after opposition leaders toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.They then turned on each other, carving this nation of an estimated 8 million people into clan-based fiefdoms.A UN-backed transitional government has tried in recent months to assert control from Baidoa, 240 kilometres west of Mogadishu because the capital is considered unsafe.The Islamic fundamentalists have portrayed themselves as the force capable of bringing order to the Horn of Africa country.They have built up their forces as part of a campaign to install an Islamic government in Somalia and have established a system of courts.- Nampa-APDoctors said most of the dead were civilians killed in crossfire.Late on Sunday, the chairman of the radical Islamic Court Union militias and a senior commander for the secular fighters agreed to stop the bloodletting after clan elders threatened to unleash their own combatants on whichever side violated the cease-fire.Despite signs that the cease-fire was holding, many people were wary of returning to their homes Monday.Militiamen were still deployed at defensive positions.Traditional elders who brokered the ceasefire prepared to meet the two sides to discuss the withdrawal of fighters from the battle zone, said Hussein Ahmed Kabare, a clan elder involved in the initiative.Somalia has had no effective central government since 1991, after opposition leaders toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.They then turned on each other, carving this nation of an estimated 8 million people into clan-based fiefdoms.A UN-backed transitional government has tried in recent months to assert control from Baidoa, 240 kilometres west of Mogadishu because the capital is considered unsafe.The Islamic fundamentalists have portrayed themselves as the force capable of bringing order to the Horn of Africa country.They have built up their forces as part of a campaign to install an Islamic government in Somalia and have established a system of courts.- Nampa-AP