A ceasefire in Mogadishu held for a second day on Tuesday when Somali clan elders prepared to meet Ethiopian troops after some of the worst fighting in the city's history. | That's a day longer than in Gaza ... |
After four days of battles that killed several hundred people and left parts of Mogadishu in rubble, two days of relative calm have brought some relief to the capital's 1 million residents, many of whom are trying to flee. Rebels linked to clan militia and a militant Islamist movement remained dug in behind sand-banks and in narrow alleys of Mogadishu. Ethiopian and Somali soldiers are watching them from positions close by, witnesses said. "Things are quiet again this morning but the fighting could start again at any time, it's tense," said a witness, surveying the city from his rooftop.
Leaders of the Hawiye clan, the city's dominant group from whose ranks many of the fighters come, were meeting early on Tuesday. They then planned to sit down with Ethiopian commanders, in Somalia to back the interim government.
Fierce fighting between Ethiopian-backed government forces and Islamic militants in Somalia's capital has killed nearly 400 people - mostly civilians - in the past four days, a Somali human rights group said Monday. The fighting abated long enough Monday to allow thousands of people to flee the ruined coastal city on foot and in donkey carts, cars and trucks. Some 47,000 people - mainly women and children - have abandoned their homes in the last 10 days, according to the U.N. refugee agency.