Thousands flee Mogadishu clashes

By Grant Ferret
BBC Africa analyst

Mogadishu had enjoyed relative calm for more than a year

Thousands of Somalis have fled their homes in the capital, Mogadishu, following some of the heaviest fighting there for several years.

About 60 people are feared dead after three days of worsening clashes between rival militia in the north of the city.

The capital had been enjoying relative calm until a minor incident at a hotel earlier in May degenerated into what one resident described as civil war.

The dispute has sucked in forces loyal to powerful warlords.

Prone to instability

Militia armed with automatic rifles, mortars and anti-aircraft guns exchanged intense fire throughout Saturday.

Hospital officials said 38 people had been killed and many more injured over the past 24 hours alone.

Some of them were civilians caught in the crossfire as the militiamen competed for control of an airstrip and a road connecting the city to two harbours.

As well as forcing thousands of people to abandon their homes in search of safety in the southern part of Mogadishu, the fighting has driven up the price of food and other basics.

The clashes again highlight how prone Somalia remains to instability.

With no functioning national government, police or courts since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991, there is little to restrain the various militia groups.

Somalia's faction leaders have been meeting in neighbouring Kenya for more than 18 months in an effort to produce a new government, but there are widespread and understandable doubts in Mogadishu whether the men who have helped to destroy the country can agree to rebuild it.