MOGADISHU’S MAYOR has urged the city’s residents to leave the Somali capital, amid some of the heaviest fighting in almost a year.
“We call on residents to stay away from the fighting zones because the big offensive to sweep rebels from the whole city is imminent,” Mogadishu mayor Abdirizak Mohamed Nur told reporters.
He advised people to move at least 2km from the city.
Emergency officials say more than 40 people have been killed this week, as government troops shelled advancing rebels ahead of a long-awaited offensive to dislodge insurgents from the capital.
Witnesses said the clashes began in north Mogadishu on Wednesday afternoon, when rebels briefly overran government positions near the presidential palace. The fighting escalated when African Union peacekeepers in tanks reinforced state troops.
Most of the dead and injured were civilians caught in crossfire, said Dr Abdullahi Awale, a doctor at Mogadishu’s Keysaney hospital.
“We are treating lots of head, lower abdominal and chest injuries, but many of the injured who are getting to us are dying because we have no blood bank.”
He said the hospital treated 82 patients from the fighting on Thursday and 12 more yesterday.
The weak western-backed transitional federal government (TFG) controls just a few blocks of Mogadishu while Islamist groups hold power over most of the south and central parts of Somalia. TFG president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said the offensive would start in the middle of this month.
But even if it is successful, the real challenge will come once it is finished, said one analyst.
“It appears that TFG forces have done much better than they have in the past,” said EJ Hogendoorn of the International Crisis Group in Nairobi.
“But while the offensive can be helpful in terms of enforcing the legitimacy of the government . . . the real question is will they be willing and able to cut political deals with the clans in those areas they take control of? . . . It’s impossible to control a population who resent the government. And that is especially true in Somalia where people are armed and have the ability to fight.”
Some 34,500 people have been forced out of Mogadishu since February 1st, said the UN Refugee Agency. Almost 1.5 million are displaced within the country.