18/04/07 (B391) BBC Fresh fatalities in Somali clash. Nouveaux affrontements en Somalie ou seuls 1.200 soldats ougandais sont arrivés sur les 8.000 militaires que devrait comporter l’AMISOM pour remplacer la présence éthiopienne. (En anglais – info lectrice)

A spokesman for Mogadishu’s dominant Hawiye clan said tension is high but
the ceasefire agreement still holds.

The cabinet is meeting to discuss security and may approve the sacking of
ministers opposed to the government.

Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aideed says the Ethiopians have committed genocide
since arriving in December.

Ethiopia had dismissed Mr Aideed’s comments as absolute fabrication.

The Ethiopians arrived at the request of the transitional government, to oust
the Union of Islamic Courts that was then in control.

The UN refugee agency says hundreds of residents have been killed and some
200,000 others have fled Mogadishu as government and Ethiopian soldiers battle
insurgents – both Islamists and Hawiye fighters.

Sharp divisions

Heavy shelling and mortars landed on residential areas in the south of Mogadishu
on Tuesday night as Ethiopian-backed government forces battled with militants.

I saw three bodies pulled out of a house,? Abdirahman Bile, a resident of
Towfiq neighbourhood told Reuters news Agency.

Hawiye clan elders and commanders from Ethiopian forces agreed a tentative
ceasefire earlier this month.

Mr Aideed(*), a former war lord and an influential member of the Hawiye
clan, has called on Ethiopian forces to leave Somalia signalling sharp divisions
within the interim administration.

On Tuesday, a meeting of the Somali parliament in Baidoa voted to expel 31
members of parliament.

Among them was the former parliament speaker, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan.
He, along with Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, is staying in neighbouring
Eritrea – Ethiopia’s regional rival.

Mr Adan opposed Ethiopia’s intervention and has called for peace talks with
the Islamists.

Ethiopia says it has started to withdraw some of its troops from Somalia and
will gradually handover responsibilities to the African Union force.

So far only 1,200 Ugandans have arrived, of the planned 8,000-strong force.