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35 people killed in Somalia clashes

08 December 2010 03:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least 35 people have been killed and 40 others injured in clashes that erupted between rival clans in northern Somalia, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The casualties that have been dramatically rising in the past few weeks are reported to be mostly children and women.

The clans are from Puntland and Galmudug and live side by side in the town of Galkayo and neighboring border regions. However, there have been enduring animosities between them over the ownership of land and access to water.

Officials from Galmudug accuse Puntland -- a semi-autonomous region in the north of Somalia -- of using the forces they have lately trained to counter piracy in the region for attacking them.

Although Somalia’s President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has made lots of efforts to resolve tribal clashes and bring about unity, parts of the capital and vast areas in the country still remain under the control of clans.

Since the former dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, was toppled by warlords in 1991, the country has not seen a powerful central government.

Clashes between rival factions as well as famine and disease have claimed the lives of over one million people in the past two decades.

There are more that 1.4 million internally displaced people in Somalia, of whom over 300,000 area sheltering in Mogadishu.