The SOS Kinderhof Children's Hospital in Mogadishu is at epicenter of fighting between militias, and Ethiopian forces backed by Somalis loyal to transitional gov't.

December 18, 2007

Gunbattles continue also this morning in northern Mogadishu  theatre since the weekend to a fierce confrontation between Ethiopian troops and Somali forces loyal to the transitional federal government, on one side, and the composite armed opposition. As referred to MISNA by local sources contacted in various areas of Mogadishu, skirmishes are underway in the area of the main Bakara market, epicenter of the fighting, but also near the cattle market, along Industry Road and near the SOS Kinderdorf children’s hospital.

“For the moment the fighting is less intense than last night, but it is really unbearable”, said a resident of the northern Huriwa neighborhood, considered a stronghold of the ‘resistance’ (‘muqawama’). The Huriwa and Bakara zones were theatre yesterday afternoon to more intense fighting and mortar fire exchanges.

As in the past days, civilians were mainly among the 12 dead and 40 wounded yesterday by Ethiopian and insurgent artillery fire. Local sources refer that a mortar shell hit a restaurant in the heart of the Bakara market, killing at least four customers, and another destroyed a house killing a mother and her three children on the spot.

“A dead man and 7 wounded, all in critical condition, were brought last night to the hospital”, said to MISNA Ali Mohalim Gedi, vice-director of the Medina Hospital, one of Mogadishu’s two top medical facilities. “We don’t even know anymore if we are in an emergency, given that the emergency has been underway for months. We have 84 wounded at the hospital, all with war injuries. The structure has 65 beds and we have set up five tents outside for the others. But we are used to it now”, added the representative of the Medina Hospital, among the medical facilities assisted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), reminding how in the past months the hospital hosted over 140 wounded in one sole day. 

Missionary International Service News Agency (MISNA)