At least 55 people have been killed and another 155 injured during a violent clash between two clans in central Somalia.
According to residents and medical officials on Monday the violent clash occurred over the weekend.
Somalia’s federal government has been struggling to contain violence unleashed by the Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group but is also facing clan-based clashes over control of land and water in the Horn of Africa nation.
A clan elder and resident of Herale, Farah Nur said the clash between the Dir and Marihan clans, who fought alongside each other in the paramilitary group which ousted al Shabaab from the Galmudug region, erupted on Saturday in Abudwaq and Herale towns over grazing land and watering points.
“Government forces came late. Unfortunately, 55 people died, this includes both clans,” he told Reuters.
“It was easy to stop (the fight) but it didn’t happen. The situation got out of hand and spread like wildfire.”
Personnel from hospitals in Herale, Abudwaq and two other adjacent towns confirmed to Reuters they had attended to 115 people who were wounded in the fighting. Those who died were buried immediately, residents said.
A security adviser to the president of Galmudug state, Ahmed Shire Falagle
said, “We believe al Shabaab is indirectly behind this strange war.
“These are two brotherly clans that are jointly used to defeat al Shabaab.”
The fighting subsided following the arrival of federal government soldiers, residents said and Falagle said.
“There is (a) ceasefire but the mood is not good. A permanent ceasefire is needed,” Sadia Hussein, a mother of four, told Reuters from Abudwaq.
