At least 96 people have been killed in more than two weeks of clashes between security forces and clan members in Somaliland, a hospital director said on Thursday.
“We have 96 dead and 560 wounded,” said Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, director of the main hospital in the contested town of Las Anod.
Garaad Jama Garaad Ali, a senior clan chief, on Wednesday said that 150 people had been killed and 500 wounded.
Photo: AP
Somaliland, which has claimed independence from Somalia since 1991, but has never been recognized internationally, is often seen as a beacon of stability in the Horn of Africa.
However, political tensions have surged in the past few months, leading to deadly violence between government forces and militias loyal to Somalia.
The latest fighting broke out on Feb. 6 in Las Anod, which straddles a key trade route and is claimed by Somaliland and neighboring Puntland, a semi-autonomous state of northeastern Somalia.
The UN said more than 185,000 people have been displaced by the violence.
Heavy fighting was still raging on Thursday, the region’s clan leaders and witnesses said.
“It started in the early morning and already several artillery and mortar shells landed in the town,” Las Anod resident Mohamed Saleban said by telephone, adding that people were fleeing.
On Wednesday, Hassan said that the hospital itself had been bombarded and that several employees had on “a number of occasions” survived shelling.
“They have destroyed the electricity system of the hospital, the oxygen system, the blood bank, the office of the human resources and other parts of the hospital building,” he told reporters, vowing to continue working.
The violence erupted after elders in the Sool region, where Las Anod is located, issued a statement pledging support for Somalia’s federal government and urged Somaliland authorities to withdraw their soldiers from the area.
The Somaliland government announced a ceasefire on Feb. 10, but days later accused Somalia of attacking its forces.
The UN last week said that more than 185,00 people had been uprooted from their homes, with aid workers struggling to respond to the situation due to inadequate resources.
Women and children accounted for an estimated 89 percent of the displaced population, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.
Many were reportedly seeking shelter under trees or inside schools, which have been forced to shut.
In addition to those displaced inside Somaliland, more than 60,000 have fled to Ethiopia’s Somali Region to escape the violence, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.
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