Source : APA
Eighteen people have been killed in gun battles between riva fighting for control of the Somali port city of Kismayo, APA reports quot
According to Kismayo residents, 13 people were killed on Saturday and five d Friday.
"The Ras Kamboni militia now controls this part of the city," said Bile Nur, a r Kismayo's Calanleey district.
"Residents are burying the dead of the militia driven out, while Ras Kamboni theirs," he added.
Local elder Nur Ibrahim said there is not much hope for a negotiated end to "We hope fighting will cease. Only the man with the most weapons will rema
African Union troops are currently in charge of security in the lucrative port o and its fertile hinterlands.
In October 2012, Kenyan troops backed by Ras Kamboni militiamen, captured from al-Shabab fighters.
On Saturday, a senior al-Shabab official in Kismayo said Kenya was responsib latest bloodshed.
“The resurgence of tribal hostility in Kismayo is a result of the Kenyan invasio and the Kenyan government will be held fully responsible for every drop of b Xudayfa Abdirahman stated.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlo overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
However, MPs meeting in Mogadishu elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as the president of Somalia with a big majority in September 2012.
The weak Western-backed government in Mogadishu has been battling al-Sha for more than five years and is propped up by a 10,000-strong African Union Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, and Kenya.
