- Title: [SW News](AFP) Residents flee war-torn southern Somalia - Feb 6, 2000
Source: AFP
HEADLINE: Residents flee war-torn southern Somalia
DATELINE: MOGADISHU, Feb 6
BODY:
Hundreds of people arrived here Sunday after fleeing a violence-hit region
of southern Somalia in anticipation of more fighting between rival armed
groups, an Islamic court official said.
The move followed two days of fighting in the Lower Shabelle region between
armed militia of the Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA) and militiamen of the
Islamic Court and Habr Gedir sub-clan.
The fighting has left more than 20 people dead and 40 others wounded in the
southern Kurtunwarey district, Mogadishu Islamic Court official Sheikh Omar
Moalin Nur said.
Nur admitted that his fighters had lost two battle wagons -- pickup trucks
which carry heavy weapons -- which were destroyed by landmines near
Kurtunwarey.
"The battle wagons were on normal routine security exercises and were not
engaged in battle when they detonated the landmines, planted by unknown
people, who will be punished after investigations establish their
responsibility," Nur said.
Witnesses said that the displaced people had begun arriving in both
Mogadishu and the port of Merca, 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of the
capital.
Many had brought valuables, tractors, water pumps and other agricultural
equipment.
Meanwhile, dozens of battle wagons left here on Sunday to establish a buffer
zone to protect farmers in southern Mogadishu from the influx of refugees,
most of them from the Habr Gedir.
Lower Shabelle is the most fertile region of Somalia, which has been ruled
by clan warlords since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.
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