Apr 27, 2007, 15:07 GMT
Mogadishu/Nairobi - Ethiopian backed government troops attempted to secure a hold on the turbulent Somali capital Mogadishu Friday after more than a week of deadly violence, but chaos reigned as looters took advantage of the deserted city.
The Coca-Cola factory in the city's north was among those properties being ransacked, Somali news agency Shabelle reported, as guns fell silent and Somalis began clearing away the corpses left behind after the recent flare-up of fighting.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said government troops were in control of the city after eight days of fighting insurgents that left at least 300 dead in unsettling barrages from both sides that often hit civilians.
The government called on the 365,000 people who had fled the city since February to return to their homes, many of which were damaged in the ongoing fighting.
A similar battle in April left up to 1,000 dead and sent scores fleeing in some of the worst fighting in 15 years.
With the corpses lying decomposing in the streets, diseases taking hold among the throngs of displaced and the constant fighting, the UN has warned of a looming humanitarian catastrophe.
The government troops were using tanks and missiles to combat rocket-toting militants - remnants of an ousted Islamist group which ruled the capital for the last half of 2006.
The transitional government, the 14th attempt at cementing central rule in Somalia, has struggled to assert its authority over the Horn of Africa nation and a 1,500-member African Union (AU) peacekeeping force deployed in Mogadishu has been unable to stem the bloodshed.
On a visit to the Ugandan capital Kampala Friday, AU chairman Alpha Oumar Konare voiced his concern over the worsening situation in Somalia and the AU's inability to muster the 8,000 troops it said were required to secure the capital.
'We regret the incidents taking place in Somalia - the dead, the displaced and wounded. I regret that we have not been able to get our objective of securing Somalia,' Konare said at the end of his two-day official visit.
He appealed for more troop contributions from the pan-African organization's members, a few of which have promised peacekeepers but only Uganda has delivered.
The once powerful Islamist group brought some stability to the country, but that was disrupted by an Ethiopian-backed and US- sanctioned incursion over the New Year, which ousted the Islamists and installed the government.
In what looks increasingly like an Iraq-style insurgency, two explosions shook Mogadishu and its environs this week, killing at least seven in a car bomb and an unknown number in a suicide attack on an Ethiopian military base.
Somalia has been without strong central rule since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre swept the country into anarchy and warlord rule.
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AT LEAST THEY HAVE THEIR RELIGION !!Apr 28th, 2007 - 01:54:12
Right? And all the people there are Muslim ? Yes ! Then that's perfection !! Because 'Islam Means Peace' !! According to Muslims - this is what the world needs – SHARI’A LAW FOR ALL !!! THE - ACCEPT OR DIE - WAR OF WARS !!
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