Six reportedly killed in fighting near Baidoa

Up to six people are said to have been killed in southwestern Somalia in fighting between rival factions of the governing Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA).

RRA chairman Hasan Muhammad Nur "Shatigadud", who leads one of the factions, said "skirmishes" broke out when his clan members came under attack from supporters of his rival Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade.

He told IRIN the fighting had taken place on Tuesday and Wednesday at Dambal near Baidoa airport and at Dainunai on the road to Mogadishu, but that it died down on Thursday.

Last month, Shatigadud reconciled with one of his rivals, deputy RRA chairman Shaykh Adan Madobe, but Habsade, the other deputy chairman, has refused to join them.

"That is why his supporters attacked us," Shatigadud said. "So our people carried out a revenge attack. Five or six people were killed."

He added that the ceasefire deal with Madobe still stands, but that a committee set up to explain the agreement to the people of the region had not yet left Nairobi for Baidoa. Shatigadud is in the Kenyan capital attending peace talks which have been underway since October 2002.

Shatigadud and his two deputies split in July 2002 as a power struggle tore apart the RRA, which controls much of the Bay and Bakol regions. Fierce fighting broke out in Baidoa and the town changed hands several times, creating a severe humanitarian crisis.