Eyewitness: Mogadishu horror

Teacher Ibrahim Abdi, 20, describes the violence that befell his city, Mogadishu, on Monday night when the Ethiopian-backed government forces shelled areas of the Somali capital after their positions were attacked.

Last night was an unacceptable night - what happened is out of humanity because people who gathered in their houses were targeted.

Dozens of Somalis have been killed in mortar attacks this year

I have never, never seen an attack like last night

Normally maybe just one, or at the worst two, family members are hurt during mortar shell attacks but this time lots of people were hit all at once.

Usually the only mortars that hit civilians are the shells that have become strays but last night the people, us, we were the focus of the targets.

People are still shocked.

I was inside the school where I teach English when the shelling began at around 2000 hours local time.

Mortars' whistles

We heard one of the explosions - the first thrown into where the foreign [Ethiopian] troops and the transitional federal government soldiers are based.

What happened last night in Mogadishu, if it returns again, tonight, then no-one will be seen inside Mogadishu tomorrow

All of us were surprised and waited for the answer... normally what happens immediately after an attack provides an explanation to the latest situation in our city.

But we could not tell what was going on.

Sometimes when the mortars begin, they are not that close and mostly the only shells you see at the time are just the strays. I thought the fighting would be over before long but it kept carrying on.

Mortar shells were crossing each other in the sky. They were many, many and the sound was horrific. Never has it sounded so loud to me.

The mortars' whistles were too much to take and the screaming was too bad. People were screaming heavily.

I finally fled from there when it was around midnight. There were a lot of people also fleeing.

Difficult matter

I saw a lot of people who were injured. Two brothers had been hit - the one that died, he had been my friend.

People, today in Mogadishu, are blaming the Ethiopians. Most don't like what they have done, uninvited, in our country.

At the time of the mortar shelling some people died but today even more have died because of their injuries. And up to now people are fleeing from their homes, some are going to the Lower Shabelle or central regions.

Hospital staff in Mogadishu are attending to the wounded

For now, the matter is very difficult indeed. What happened last night in Mogadishu, if it returns again, tonight, then no-one will be seen inside Mogadishu tomorrow.

The focus of the targets was unacceptable.

My family fled before yesterday and so I have been guarding our house alone. Some of my colleagues that I give lessons to have also since fled.

Those of us who need to stay, we will stay and we will support each other.

The government keeps coming on our local radio stations to tell us that they are training forces to come and restore order, to bring us peace and security but still no-one has come.

This time is very difficult for us.

Even the talk about the peacekeeping forces who are apparently coming to help... they won't be able to do anything.

Peace and stability can only be restored by the hands of the people of Somalia. If the Somali people try to join their hands, restore stability, then everything will be overcome.