About 100 people were reported killed on Saturday in fighting between Puntland and the rival Somali territory of Somaliland, which accused Puntland's leader, now Somalia's new president, of waging war on it. Abdullahi Yusuf, elected president on Oct. 10, has pledged to work peacefully with breakaway Somaliland as he tries to restore order to Somalia, which descended into anarchy in 1991 following the ousting of dictator Mohammad Siad Barre. But his election alarmed Somaliland, hostile to a man long seen as its archfoe in the neighbouring autonomous territory of Puntland. It warned Yusuf on Oct. 12 against any attempted aggression and said it was on alert against any move to reunite Somaliland with the rest of Somalia.
"Full mobilisation of our soldiers is going on and will continue until Yusuf's forces leave our territory," a spokesman for the Somaliland president said on Saturday, adding that fighting had stopped because of heavy rains. A spokesman for Somaliland's office of defence said the death toll from the fighting, which erupted on Friday at the village of Adi-Addeye, about 30km north of Las Anod, had risen to 109. It was not immediately clear whether that figure referred to combat casualties or civilians or both. The spokesman said nine Somaliland soldiers were also killed in the fighting. Las Anod has been a flashpoint during previous flare-ups between the two armies. Puntland and Somaliland have fought sporadic clashes for years over the ownership of several eastern areas of Somaliland claimed by Puntland's leaders as their own, on the basis of ethnicity. But the cause of the fresh bout of fighting was not clear, with both sides accusing each other of starting it.
| They learned nothing from Ethiopia and Eritrea -- fighting over worthless sand. |
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