Mogadishu, December 30: Heavy clashes between Somali government troops, backed by African Union forces, and al-Shabab fighters have left at least 25 people dead and many others wounded in capital Mogadishu.
At least 17 people were killed on Tuesday after clashes broke out between al-Shabab fighters and the transitional government troops in Mogadishu’s northern districts of Hodan, Bondhere and Abdiaziz.
More than 32 civilians were also wounded in the skirmishes, Radio Garowe reported on Thursday.
Somali ambulance workers ferried those wounded to local hospitals.
Separately, eight civilians were killed in Hawlwadig and Kaaraan districts as Somali forces and al-Shabab fighters exchanged fire and mortar shells landed in residential areas.
In a recent report, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stated that hundreds of civilians have been injured in fighting in Somalia in recent months.
The Geneva-based humanitarian institution said that a total of 5,000 patients with war injuries, including 1,900 women and children, were admitted to Mogadishu’s Keysaney and Medina hospitals from January to September.
Compared to last year, it is an increase of 25 percent in the total number of war casualties and 72 percent in the number of war-wounded women and children admitted to the hospitals.
Some 4,000 patients with war injuries, among them 1,100 women and children, were taken to Mogadishu’s two referral hospitals in 2009.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Over the past two decades, up to one million people have lost their lives in fighting between rival factions and due to famine and disease.
There are more than 1.4 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Somalia. Over 300,000 of the IDPs are sheltered in Mogadishu.
Most of the displaced live in poor and degrading conditions on makeshift sites in southern and central Somalia, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
—Agencies