Fighting in various neighbourhoods of Mogadishu ahead of a tense cabinet meeting left at least 25 dead and over 50 injured, reports the Somali Garowe Radio citing ambulance sources. According to the same sources, the clashes occurred near the parliament building, the main Bakara market and the zones of Wardhingley, Hodan and Hawlwadag. Garowe reports that mortars and artillery shells were fired by both the anti-government al-Shabab insurgents and peacekeepers of the African Union (AU) that back the Somali federal government. "Mogadishu's hospitals are full of wounded people", Ali Yahin Gedi, vice chairman of the Elman rights group said, adding that hundreds of families are fleeing the city. Tension was high yesterday also in the political scene, with a declaration by the parliament speaker after the first sessions since December, indicating that lawmakers passed a vote of no confidence against the government. The version was however denied by Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke and some majority lawmakers. Garowe was more cautious in reporting the news: "The bickering in the parliament has made impossible for the fragile UN-backed government to carry on with its work of establishing rule of law in a country that is most controlled by powerful insurgent group". Somalia has been gripped by unresolved conflict and humanitarian emergencies since 1991, after the fall of the nation's leader Siad Barre.
[BO]