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AU
backs Somalia pact, fighting
rocks Kismayu
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 KISMAYU(August
22, 2008) - The
African Union said on Thursday a pact between Somalia's government
and some opposition figures was a very significant step, but fighting
in the southern port of Kismayu dented hopes of a breakthrough.
President Abdullahi Yusuf's interim administration signed the peace
agreement on Monday at U.N.-led talks in Djibouti.
The deal, which was first initialled in June, calls for the rapid
deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to halt the bloodshed.
"The AU reiterates its determination to support the TFG (Transitional
Federal Government) and other Somali stakeholders as they strive to
bring an end to the violence that has plagued Somalia for so many
years", the AU said in a statement.
It said it would work closely with the United Nations to ensure the
early deployment of U.N. troops but gave no details.
The deal has been rejected by opposition hardliners, and the U.N.
Security Council has been reluctant to commit U.N. forces.
Fighting pitting Islamist rebels against government troops and their
Ethiopian military allies has killed more than 8,000 civilians and
uprooted 1 million since the start of last year.
Most of the turmoil has plagued the bombed-out capital Mogadishu,
where at least six people died on Thursday in mortar duels between
government forces and the insurgents.
Fierce gun battles also rocked the normally calmer southern port of
Kismayu. Residents there said more than 20 people, mostly rebels,
had died in clashes that started on Wednesday.
"Forty wounded people have reached us now and the fighting between
the two groups is still going on," Ali Hassan, a doctor at Kismayu
general hospital, told Reuters.
"We hear there are many dead and injured people in the town,
but movement is restricted by the shooting."
A spokesman for the al Shabaab insurgent group, which the United States
says is a terrorist organisation with close ties to al Qaeda, said
his forces were behind the attack in Kismayu.
He gave no other details. |
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