Mogadishu, Dec 22, (dpa/GNA) – The regional authority of Somalia’s northern Puntland region, declared a unilateral ceasefire on Wednesday after clashes in the business hub port city of Bossaso.
Efforts were under way for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
The clashes erupted on Tuesday morning when soldiers loyal to the regional President, Said Abdullahi Deni, tried to disarm a very active US-trained special regional counter-terrorism unit, called the Puntland Security Force (PSF).
Deni fired General Mohamud Diyano, an overall commander of the PSF, but the general did not accept this, claiming the sacking was political and would disrupt the fight against terrorism in the region.
As a result of the mutiny, the Puntland leader sent hundreds of soldiers to Bossaso in an attempt to disarm this well-armed unit and its leadership.
At least nine people, mostly civilians, were killed in Wednesday’s clashes, taking the death toll to 19 in total since Tuesday.
“What we have now is a fragile ceasefire,” senior police officer Mohamed Ali Hashi said, confirming the death toll to dpa on the telephone.
More than 45 people have been reported wounded in the violence, according to the police.
“Eighty per cent of the city’s inhabitants fled their homes in fear of more violence and bloodshed,” civil society member Abdisalam Mohamud told dpa.
Puntland, one of Somalia’s five federal member states, is currently preparing to put forward lawmakers for national parliamentary elections.
For years, the country in the Horn of Africa has been plagued by the Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab, which controls large parts of the south and the centre, and repeatedly carries out attacks on security forces and civilians.
GNA