Global Human Traffiking Watch: Somali civilians killed in market attack

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Somali civilians killed in market attack

Thu Jun 2, 2011 5:41PM

Somalis carry a civilian wounded by mortar shrapnel during clashes between al-Shabab fighters and government troops, as he arrives at the Medina hospital in Mogadishu (file photo).

At least 17 civilians have been killed after clashes broke out between Somalia's transitional government forces and al-Shabab fighters holed up in Mogadishu's Bakara market.

Al-Shabab fighters exchanged heavy gunfire with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) troops backed by African Union (AU) forces, AFP reported.

Ali Muse, the head of Mogadishu's ambulance service, said that the bodies of at least 17 people killed in Thursday's fighting have been collected.

Nine people were killed when stray artillery fire struck a bus station, where they were waiting.

Bakara market -- the biggest and busiest market in southern Mogadishu -- is a top revenue stream for al-Shabab group, which taxes its traders. The market has been the site of hundreds of deadly clashes in recent years.

According to Somali Defense Minister Abdi Hakiin Hajj Mahamud Fiqi, Bakara market provides al-Shabab both financing and defensive positions.

"If al-Shabab loses the market, they will be like a fish out of water," he said. "It will be hard for them to survive in Mogadishu."

Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, the lawless state has been embroiled in a bitter civil war for years.

Somalia remains one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP) in the world.

An estimated 1.4 million Somalis are displaced within the country while another 680,000 live as refugees in the neighboring countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The UNHCR reported in April that the number of Somali refugees arriving to neighboring countries during the first quarter of 2011 has more than doubled in comparison to the same period in 2010.

MP/AKM