Violence continues to escalate in Somalia, a human rights group saying at least 30 people have been killed in Mogadishu over the past day.
Vehicles of the Ethiopian forces backing the faltering Somali government were targeted by a roadside bomb late Monday, nine people being killed in the ensuing gunbattle. At least 21 people died in other clashes across the volatile capital city, Sudani Ali Ahmed the head of the Elman Peace and Human Right acknowledging this was the bloodiest day in August.
“Thirty people died and 60 others were wounded in the last 24 hours, according to the different hospitals we surveyed. Yesterday was the highest death toll this month in Mogadishu,” he said.
Explosions and gunfire ripped through the air since Monday afternoon, rebels clashing with Ethiopian and government forces across the bullet-scared metropolis.
Also on Tuesday, Human Rights lashed out at both sides involved in the conflict for ignoring all laws and said the international community permitted the escalation of this bloody feud without taking proper measures.
More than 1,500 people were killed in the past months in clashes or bomb attacks, at least 400,000 leaving their homes behind and fleeing towards safer regions. The African Union deployed troops in Somalia, but they were quickly outrun by the conflict’s intensity and requested reinforcements from other African nations, who failed to keep their promises and left the African Union Mission to Somalia struggling.
Despite repeated calls from the United Nations, neither rebel faction was willing to sit at the negotiation table and a ceasefire was impossible to impose in these circumstances, Mogadishu remaining under siege for more than a decade.