MOGADISHU, 20 January 2004 — Thirteen people were killed in fighting in central Somalia between rival militiamen of the same clan in a dispute over a proposed alliance with Ethiopia, witnesses said yesterday. The gunfight involving AK-47 assault rifles and machineguns, which also wounded 27 people, erupted on Sunday due to widening differences over an attempt by one faction in the Galje’el clan to seek support from Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia is a traditional rival of Somalia but maintains alliances with several Somali factions to try to minimize what it calls the terrorist threat from the lawless country.
The clash broke out on Sunday afternoon at Beletwein town, capital of Hiran region 350 km north of Mogadishu near the border with Ethiopia, residents said. It was the fourth such battle in Beletwein in a week and the heaviest yet, they said.
“Ten people were killed early on Monday while three others died late on Sunday,” said Abdullahi Abdi Koffi, the deputy district commissioner in the town of Beletwein.
Residents said the violence involved supporters and opponents of a recent visit to Ethiopia by some elders of the clan. Ethiopia is a close observer of peace talks between Somali faction leaders in Kenya aimed at reviving a stalled peace process for the country, carved into rival territories since the central government was overthrown in 1991.
Kenya said yesterday that growing tension between two rival northern regions could destabilize the talks aimed at bringing peace to the whole of the country after a decade of bloodshed.
At least two people in the enclave of Somaliland were killed in fighting between the forces of Somaliland and of the rival Puntland region earlier this month.
The two territories have fought sporadic clashes for years over the ownership of several eastern areas of Somaliland that Puntland’s leaders claim as their own on the basis of ethnicity.
“I would like to call upon both parties to exercise maximum restraint and shun from plunging the region into a conflict that is clearly avoidable,” Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka told a news conference.
War and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of people in the past decade in Somalia, torn apart by rival clan militias since the overthrow of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Somaliland leaders are not involved in the peace gathering, saying they have no intention of reuniting Somaliland with the rest of Somalia. A former British protectorate, Somaliland split from Somalia in 1991 after a long independence struggle, taking advantage of the chaos that followed the fall of Barre.
