22/04/07 (B392-A) SH Network : Somalia Premier Says the War in Mogadishu Will Continue. Le Premier Ministre somalien déclare que la guerre va continuer en Somalie. (En anglais – info lecteur)

Aweys
Osman Yusuf

Mogadishu
22, April.07 ( Sh.M.Network) Speaking to a local radio station, Premier Ali
Mohammed Gedi revealed that the war between the Somali government forces backed
by Ethiopian military troops and the Islamic insurgents would continue.

“Until the terrorists are wiped out from Somalia, the fighting will
go on. I want to tell the Somali people and the world that there is no so
called fighting between Hawiye clan and the government. The battle is clearly
between terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda and the government supported by Ethiopian
and AU troops,” he said.

The fighting that has entered the fourth day claimed more than 200 civilians
and wounded nearly 400, according to Mogadishu hospital sources.

The prime minister, who is currently based in the Somali capital Mogadishu,
also called on the civilian population residing in the areas where the fighting
continues to abandon their homes and go somewhere peaceful. “I urge
the Somali living in the insurgent strongholds to leave,” he said.

Despite the prime minister’s remarks, Hawiye clan leader Abdulahi
Sheik Hassan has told Shabelle Sunday that the clan leaders and Bur Madow,
a prominent traditional leader based in the secessionist administration of
Somaliland had tried to broker a ceasefire agreement between the Ethiopian
troops and the insurgents. “We contacted with Addis Ababa administration
and convinced the government leaders to order their troops fighting in Somalia
to cease the fire, and we do hope by today that the ceasefire deal will be
implemented,” he said.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Friday for an immediate end to fighting
in Somalia and talks between rival clans to end 16 years of violence and instability.

« There is an immediate need to secure an end to the fighting, possibly
through a declaration on a cessation of hostilities and a commitment to peace
by the transitional federal government and all – or at least a majority of
– the armed groups and communities in the capital, » Ban said in a report
to the U.N. Security Council.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled
dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, plunging
the poverty-stricken Horn of Africa nation of 10 million into disarray.