[An Nahar] Clashes between rival clans have killed more than 40 people in two days in a disputed region of northern Somalia, one of the worst such confrontations seen in the area, local officials and elders said.The festivities began early Tuesday and continued on Wednesday around remote villages in the Sool region between militias from rival Darod sub-clans.
"We are calling for a ceasefire from the brotherly clans, this is a serious situation we have more than 40 people killed since yesterday and nearly 100 others are maimed," Ismail Yasin, a traditional elder from the region, said Wednesday.
Mohammed Abdulahi, a security official in the regional capital Galkayo said the "corpse count is nearly 50, this is the deadliest conflict in the area."
Most of the casualties were reported in the village of Dhumay.
Local elders said the fighting between Dhulbahante militias in the Sool region was still ongoing, with the use of heavy weaponry.
The region has long been disputed between the breakaway state of Somaliland and the semi-autonomous Somali state 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...
, whose rival forces last clashed in May, leaving dozens dead.
Somalia's myriad clans -- made up of sub-clans and extended networks -- are a defining feature of society and identity.