Local human rights office attacked in Baidoa

The offices of a local human rights group in the south-central town of Baidoa have been attacked by armed militiamen, according to an official of the organisation.

The offices of the group, Isha [Somali for "eye"], were overrun and looted by militiamen, who stripped them of their equipment.

"They took computers, digital cameras and other office equipment," Mahmud Shaykh Ali, the deputy head of Isha, told IRIN on Tuesday. "They also took tapes with information about human rights violations, which we had collected."

Isha, which is based in Baidoa, was established in 1999 and "registers, investigates, and exposes human rights violations" in the southwestern regions of Bay and Bakol, he said.

Mahmud said the break-in, the second since 2000, "may have something to do with our activities, but we are not sure yet. There are plenty of people who are unhappy with what we do." He added that the local administration had promised to track down the perpetrators and bring back all the equipment.

Meanwhile, tension was rising in Baidoa due to fears of fresh fighting between two factions of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), which controls much of the Bay and Bakol regions, a local business source told IRIN on Tuesday.

Fighting first broke out in Baidoa on 1 July last year between forces loyal to the RRA chairman, Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, and those of Shaykh Adan Madobe, the first vice-chairman, and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade, the second vice-chairman, in an apparent power struggle.

The town, which has been the scene of fierce fighting between the two rival factions, has been under the control of the Madobe/Habsade faction, for the past two months.

"There are reports that Shatigadud is about to mount another attack to retake the town," said the source. Mediation efforts collapsed after area elders, who had been trying to mediate between the two sides, had given up, he said.

"With no mediation going on, it is only a matter of time before they start fighting again," he warned.