Fighting erupted yesterday in Mogadishu between government troops and al-Shabab insurgents a day after the rebels said they were leaving the Somali capital and the government declared it controlled most of the city.
A spokesman for the African Union peacekeeping force, Amisom, said al-Shabab fighters had attacked them in one district late on Saturday, but that they and the government now controlled most of Mogadishu.
After al-Shabab started its withdrawal, Somali president Sheikh Sharif Ahmed said his troops had defeated the rebels intent on overthrowing his western-backed government.
Al-Shabab, which has its stronghold in the south of the anarchic country, denied this and said it would regroup and fight on.
Somalia has been without effective central government since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre 20 years ago, and is now suffering mass hunger from the worst drought in decades. Peace remains a distant prospect.
“Last night al-Shabab fired mortars and attacked us . . . They were not so strong, we chased them immediately,” Amisom spokesman Capt Ndayiragije Come said yesterday. “Amisom and the government forces now control 90 per cent of the capital. We are very sure we shall uproot the few al-Shabab elements remaining in the few parts of the capital.”
Residents said the fighting had continued into yesterday and that in some areas al-Shabab fighters had the upper hand.
“Now there is fighting near the football stadium. Organised clan militia and al-Shabab remnants have repulsed the advancing government troops,” one resident, Somow Ali, said.
The UN’s special envoy for Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, said al-Shabab remained a threat despite their pullout, and said the priority would now shift to delivering food aid in a country gripped by famine in areas in the south.
“The immediate priority must now be to focus on the humanitarian situation and I call on all parties . . . to do everything possible to ensure and facilitate the immediate delivery of assistance to those most in need,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Government has announced it is to provide €500,000 to Oxfam and Christian Aid as part of its response to the food crisis in the Horn of Africa.
The funding will be used to transport water to some of the worst-affected areas of northern Kenya, to build new boreholes and to provide basic healthcare to families in crisis.
The €500,000 brings Government funding for the crisis to €7.7 million, while €7 million has also been donated by the public to development and aid agencies.
Minister of State for Development Jan O’Sullivan announced the funding yesterday following a briefing by a four-member Government technical team who spent five days in the region assessing how Ireland could continue to respond to the crisis.
Ms O’Sullivan said the “assessment strongly suggests that the crisis in Somalia will worsen over the coming six months. While Somalia is worst affected, the UN estimates that 3.2 million people are also at risk in Kenya, which is also hosting over 450,000 refugees from Somalia.”