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Clashes in Somalia's Puntland Force Thousands to Flee
[Garowe] Clashes between two rival factions of the security forces in a port city in northeast Somalia have forced hundreds of families to flee their homes, a local official said Saturday.The fighting has for several days rocked Bosaso, the commercial capital of Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... in the country's northeast. "Thousands of the residents in the Bosaso town fled ... as sporadic fighting was going on in some parts of the town," local official Abdirizak Mohammed told Agence La Belle France-Presse. "Most people decided to leave their houses after the warring sides used heavy machine guns and mortars", mostly from two of the town's neighborhoods, he said. Mohammed said it was not clear exactly how many people had quit the town on the shores of the Gulf of Aden, but he estimated it was "hundreds of families." Located on the northernmost tip of Somalia, Puntland is one of the restive Horn of Africa country's five Federal States. Related: Bosaso: 2021-12-24 Somalia: Renewed fighting as Bossaso ceasefire breaks down Bosaso: 2021-12-23 Somalia: Puntland Govt declares ceasefire in Bossaso after battle Bosaso: 2021-12-22 Fighting between elements of Somalia's pro-government forces killed at least seven people and injured 50 Posted by: trailing wife 2021-12-26 |
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