At least a dozen people killed in inter-Abgal clashes

Over a dozen people were killed in inter-clan related fighting in the Middle Shabelle Region of south-central Somalia between Friday and Sunday, 3-5 May, according to sources in the regional capital, Jowhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu.

The fighting, which was concentrated in the village of Mertugo, some 150 km north of Jowhar, was between two groups of the Abgal sub-clan of the Agon Yar. The fighting broke out on 3 May and ended on 5 May after elders from Mogadishu intervened, a humanitarian source in Jowhar told IRIN.

The fighting reportedly started when officials named by the "governor" of Middle Shabelle, Muhammad Umar Habeb, to administer local affairs tried to collect taxes in the area.

"A group opposed to Habeb's administration confronted the officials and stopped them from collecting taxes" said the source in Jowhar. "There is a split within the Agon Yar: one group of them supports Habeb and other opposes him."

Habeb was a member of the Transitional National Assembly until he quit his post and set up an administration in Jowhar, renouncing his support for the Transitional National Government, in 2000. He later joined the opposition Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council.

In another development, unidentified gunmen attacked a passenger bus, killing six people and wounding six others, near Jowhar, on 3 May, local sources told IRIN. The heavily armed gunmen fired indiscriminately at the bus in the Galgalato area, some 50 km north of Jowhar, sources said.

The motive for the attack was unclear but it was thought to have been carried out by locally based militias, who frequently set up road blocks as a means of extorting money from travellers, the sources added.