Baidoa calm but tense

A tense calm has returned to the town of Baidoa, two days after fierce fighting broke out there, local sources told IRIN on Wednesday.

The fighting was between different members of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), which controls much of the Bay and Bakol regions of southwestern Somalia.

A local businessman said Baidoa was calm, "but extremely tense" on Wednesday following Monday's fighting. "There is an uneasy calm, with some businesses reopening," he said. "We are all holding our breath and waiting to see what happens next."

The fighting, which claimed over seven lives, involved forces loyal to the chairman of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, pitted against those loyal to his two deputies, Shaykh Aden Madobe and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade.

Tension had been rising in Baidoa, the headquarters of the RRA, due to a deepening split between Shatigadud and his deputies over the establishment of the self-declared autonomous region of the South West State of Somalia (SWS). Shatigadud was declared SWS president in late March.

According to local sources, both Shaykh Adan and Habsade felt that by establishing the SWS, Shatigadud had politically sidelined them, and concentrated "all the power in his hands".

A humanitarian source in Baidoa told IRIN on Wednesday that the fighting had interrupted the training of vaccinators for an upcoming campaign to immunise all children in the area against six killer diseases. "We had to halt the training until further notice due to the fighting and the uncertainty it created," he said. Other sources told IRIN that people were fleeing the town for fear of renewed clashes.

Religious leaders are engaged in mediation efforts between the two sides. "We are continuing with our effort, but have so far failed to bring the two sides together to talk face to face," a member of the mediation team told IRIN. "We cannot, however, give up."