Region | Somalia
Death toll in Somalia fighting hits 70
Islamist rebels seized control of a port in southern Somalia on Friday after the worst fighting there for months killed 70 people, residents said.
- Agencies
- Published: 13:55 August 22, 2008
Kismayu, Somalia: Islamist rebels seized control of a port in southern Somalia on Friday after the worst fighting there for months killed 70 people, residents said.
The loss of the port of Kismayu to the Al Shabaab insurgents was yet another blow for the interim government, which signed a peace deal with some opposition figures this week that has done little to end violence racking the Horn of Africa nation.
Battles between the rebels and a pro-government clan militia broke out in the south on Wednesday.
"Kismayu is under our control. We overpowered them and concluded the fighting," Shaikh Mukhtar Robow, a spokesman for the Islamists, told reporters by telephone.
"We're still chasing those fighters who ran away. The situation is calm and we urge the people to stay peaceful."
Local rights activists and residents said 70 people died in fighting that started on Wednesday. Scores were wounded.
The Al Shabaab rebel group has been waging an Iraq-style insurgency of mortar attacks, roadside bombings and assassinations targeting Somalia's interim government and its Ethiopian military allies since the start of last year.
Washington has listed Al Shabaab as a terrorist organisation with close ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
Nationwide, the violence in Somalia has killed more than 8,000 civilians and driven another 1 million from their homes.
The interim government signed a peace deal with some opposition figures on Monday, but that agreement had already been rejected by Al Shabaab and other opposition hardliners.
The manager of Kismayu general hospital, Abdi Ahmad Sugule, said there was only one doctor and a handful of nurses on duty.
"We are also running short of drugs and more people are on the way to the hospital," Sugule said.
Kismayu had been relatively peaceful in recent months compared with the bombed-out capital Mogadishu, which was also the scene of fierce fighting on Thursday.
Some of those battles took place near President Abdullahi Yousuf's Villa Somalia residence. Yousuf is visiting Ethiopia.
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