[ShabelleMedia] The fighting between the Somaliland forces and local residents has continued for the fourth day in Las Anod, the capital of Sool region, witnesses said.The two sides clashed again on Thursday morning after the SSC troops attacked Somaliland army base in Qaaja-Adde area, which lies about 5 kilometers east of the city.
"The sound of artillery and various types of weapons can be heard from around the city and residents mostly fled from their houses to the safer places," said a villager by phone.
The corpse count still rises with the medical facilities in Las Anod are coping with the increasing number of the maimed people amid shortage of medicines and doctors.
The corpse count from the 4 day battle rose to at least 75 people with the medics reporting that most of the casualties resulted from the bombardments by Somaliland troops.
The international community and Somali government called for an immediate end to the bloodshed and urged both sides to opt for dialogue instead of killing each other aimlessly.
Somaliland withdrew its forces from the city in early January, under pressure from the international community and the city’s residents who waged an uprising against Hargeisa administration.
On Tuesday, Somalia’s president Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud called for calm, urging Somaliland to negotiate with traditional elders from Sool region to resolve Las Anod crisis.
For the past 15 years, the city is disputed between Somaliland and 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...
, a semi-autonomous region of Somalia, but the local elders from the Dhulbahante clan have rejected both claims, declaring they intended to establish a new state within federal Somalia, and urging Somaliland’s forces to leave the region.
At least 35 wounded in Las Anod conflict airlifted to Mogadishu
[ShabelleMedia] Somali government said Thursday it evacuated 35 maimed people from Las Anod as fighting entered 4th straight day.
A chartered plane carrying the victims touched down at Mogadishu Airport early today, where government officials were awaiting to receive them.
The 35 injured persons have been admitted to local hospitals in the capital with health minstry tasked to take care of them.
Las Anod fighting erupted early this week after Somaliland troops launched an attack to take back the city that they lost to SSC fighters last month.
Somali president Hassan Sheikh on Tuesday called on all sides to silence the guns and halt the hostilities through peaceful dialogue.
The US and other partners voiced alarm over the escalation and shelling on civilians in Las Anod in the contested Sool region.
Somalia: We are witnessing genocide in Las Anod - elder
[Garowe] The current situation in the Las Anod city within Sool region has reached the heights of genocide, an elder has said, while calling on the international community to intervene and prevent more people fron dying following a week of skirmishes in the Horn of Africa nation.
For the last one week, the situation in Sool region of Somalia has been the epicenter of serious skirmishes which have left over 50 people dead after the second wave of violence which saw local militia engage Somaliland army in shootout which lasted for about three days.
Garad Jama Ali, an elder who had been in exile since 2007 told the BBC Somali Service that Somaliland administration has been torturing, killing and mistreating the people of Laascaanood for 15 years and that the situation has reached the point of being called a "genocide".
"This is pure genocide and the international community should call it by the right word instead of hiding for all this long," he saud. "For the last 15 years, our people have been killed carelessly by the Somaliland military and there senseless deaths ought to be called by their right words."
Jama, a respected community elder, said there was need for Somaliland administration to withdraw her soldiers from Sool to pave way for relative stability as elders look for a lasting solution to avert tensions which have continued to build up in the Horn of Africa nation.
"It is clear that the people of Las Anod want to be governed from Somalia's capital Mogadishu and not Hargeisa. This should be the reason why the military from Somaliland should gently quit instead of suffocating the people of Las Anod without good reasons, " he added while sharing the plight of the people.
[Garowe] The current situation in the Las Anod city within Sool region has reached the heights of genocide, an elder has said, while calling on the international community to intervene and prevent more people fron dying following a week of skirmishes in the Horn of Africa nation.
For the last one week, the situation in Sool region of Somalia has been the epicenter of serious skirmishes which have left over 50 people dead after the second wave of violence which saw local militia engage Somaliland army in shootout which lasted for about three days.
Garad Jama Ali, an elder who had been in exile since 2007 told the BBC Somali Service that Somaliland administration has been torturing, killing and mistreating the people of Laascaanood for 15 years and that the situation has reached the point of being called a "genocide".
"This is pure genocide and the international community should call it by the right word instead of hiding for all this long," he saud. "For the last 15 years, our people have been killed carelessly by the Somaliland military and there senseless deaths ought to be called by their right words."
Jama, a respected community elder, said there was need for Somaliland administration to withdraw her soldiers from Sool to pave way for relative stability as elders look for a lasting solution to avert tensions which have continued to build up in the Horn of Africa nation.
"It is clear that the people of Las Anod want to be governed from Somalia's capital Mogadishu and not Hargeisa. This should be the reason why the military from Somaliland should gently quit instead of suffocating the people of Las Anod without good reasons, " he added while sharing the plight of the people.