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MOGADISHU: Somali insurgents on Sunday rejected a government call for a ceasefire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and accused the president of trying to use religion as a cover for re-arming his troops.
President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a former Islamist rebel, had called for an end to fighting during Ramadan to allow people to pray.
“We will not accept that ceasefire call. This holy month will be a triumphant time for mujahideen and we will fight the enemy,” Hizbul Islam leader Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys told a news conference.
Ahmed’s United Nations-backed government is seen by many analysts as the country’s best hope for a return to stability after 18 years of conflict, but it holds just small pockets of the capital and parts of the south.
Insurgents including the Al Shabaab group, which Washington says is al Qaeda’s proxy in Somalia, have controlled most of the south for months.
A regional commander for al Shabaab questioned the government’s call for a ceasefire and vowed to escalate attacks.
“We will redouble the war against infidels. His call does not mean he has respect for Ramadan, but it is designed to re-arm his pro-Western militia,” said Bare Adan Khoje, Shabaab commander for the South Western Gedo region.
At least 11 people were killed and 22 others wounded on the first day of Ramadan when the insurgents attacked government positions in the capital, the state defence minister said.
“They attacked our positions on Saturday evening and we gave them a lesson. Their bodies are lying on the streets,” Yusuf Mohamed told Reuters.
Ali Nuur, a Mogadishu school teacher said he had been trapped in a mosque by the fighting.
“Seven of the bodies were lying on the streets when I got out of the mosque,” he said.
More than 100 people died last week in different parts of the country as pro-government militias and insurgents engaged in various battles.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Sunday that the European Union (EU) should appoint a special envoy for Somalia.
“The EU must not only speak with a single voice… but should study the appointment of a special envoy,” Frattini said speaking in the Italian seaside resort of Rimini.