At least 96 people have died in a town in Somaliland, a disputed region of Somalia where clashes have been raging for two weeks between militias loyal to the Somali government and separatist forces, the director of the main local hospital said on Thursday.
“We registered 96 dead and 560 injured in the main hospital” in the city of Las Anod, Ahmed Mohamed Hassan told AFP by phone.
An important traditional leader of Somaliland, who was involved in the fight against the separatist soldiers, told journalists in Las Anod on Wednesday evening that more than 150 people had died.
“The death toll reached 150 people and more than 500 others were injured,” official Garaad Jama Garaad Ali said.
Somaliland, a former British territory, declared its independence from Somalia in 1991, an act unrecognized by the international community.
The latest violence in Las Anod began 17 days ago, on February 6, hours after the usual chiefs issued a statement pledged to support “the unity and integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia” and called on the Somali authorities to withdraw their forces from the area.
A ceasefire was announced by the authorities on February 10, but the two parties have accused each other of violating it.
Clashes in particular appeared to have resumed Thursday, according to witnesses and usual chiefs.
“It started early in the morning and already several mortar and artillery fires fell on the city,” resident Mohamed Saleban told AFP by phone, saying the residents were fleeing.
On February 16, the local UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said more than 185,000 people, including 89% women and children, had fled the violence in Las Anod.
Somaliland, a region of 4.5 million people, remains poor and isolated but enjoys relative stability as Somalia has been plagued by decades of civil war and Islamist insurgencies.