30 Dead In Clan Violence In Ethiopia’s Somali Region

JIGJIGA, Ethiopia Feb 15 – Heavy clan fighting erupted in the Daroor area of eastern Ethiopia on Wednesday killing scores of people and wounding others, according to the Thursday edition of the Hargeisa-based Jamhuuriya newspaper.

Clan militias fought for nearly 5 hours with no Ethiopian authorities in sight to intervene.

Casualty figures are difficult to confirm, but in contacts with the Somali-inhabited region of Ethiopia, Garowe Online has learned that more than 30 people died on both sides, with 45 others wounded during the violence.

Some of the wounded were rushed to nearby regional hospitals, while others were transported to hospitals in Hargeisa, capital of the self-declared Somaliland Republic in northwestern Somalia.

The two brotherly sub-clans involved in the militia violence live on both sides of the Ethio-Somali border and are closely affiliated with major clans residing in Somaliland.

These two sub-clans’ militias fought several times over shared land in the past year. Traditional chiefs and government officials intervened then and succeeded in reaching a ceasefire agreement between the warring factions.

There was no word from the Ethiopian federal government in Addis Ababa, or the regional government of the Somali State based in the city of Jigjiga.

Clan leaders were headed to the area to calm tensions and avoid further bloodshed, according to one elder in Hargeisa.

This deadly clan battle comes at a time the Ethiopian federal government has committed thousands of its troops to assist Somalia’s interim government uphold its fragile authority across the Horn of Africa country.

Source: Garowe Online