Sunday, November 11, 2007
An AFP correspondent said the vast Bakara market area in the south of the capital had been deserted by early Sunday, as those who had remained through the past week of fighting fled by the thousands.
According to estimates compiled by AFP, some 60 people, mostly civilians, were killed since Thursday in the worst clashes in Mogadishu since April, when Ethiopian troops wrested final control of the city from Islamists who briefly controlled large parts of the country.
Civilians have complained of indiscriminate shooting by Ethiopian forces, who are involved in their toughest crackdown against the Islamist-led insurgency.
The latest fighting comes as President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed is engaged in intensive consultations to find a new prime minister, following the resignation late last month of Ali Mohamed Gedi.
Gedi was accused of failing to break the back of the insurgency and rebuilding the Horn of Africa country's institutions.
Two weeks of clashes in Mogadishu had already displaced at least 90,000 people, according to the United Nations, worsening the humanitarian crisis that has blighted the nation for 16 years.
Towns and districts just outside Mogadishu have struggled to cope with the latest influx of refugees.
The Shabelle region - known as Somalia's breadbasket - has suffered its worst crop in 13 years and aid agencies have warned a major food shortages that immediately threaten the lives of thousands of children.
Relief workers have also said that the few people who stay behind in the worst-affected parts of Mogadishu are out of the relief net's reach and face dire conditions.
Source: AFP, Nov 11, 2007