Landmines, Armed Confrontations Cut off Strategic Road in SomaliaLandmines and armed confrontations Wednesday cut off the main road between the Somali capital Mogadishu and the southern port town of Kismaio, 500 kilometers south of Mogadishu.More than 70 trucks transporting commercial goods from Mogadishu to Kismaio and Mandera town in northeastern Kenya are now stuck in an area between Erille and Empressa villages about 160 kilometers south of the capital. The latest landmine incident took place when a minibus from Kismaio town overran a landmine at Erille village Wednesday morning. According to Mukhtar Ali Gesey, a businessmen who witnessed the accident, four of the passengers were killed and four others wounded as a result of the explosion. "Three of the wounded have lost their legs and were bleeding seriously," said Gesey, adding that "the explosion tore the minibus into two parts." The road has been safe until recently before armed confrontations took place between charcoal burners and the Tunni clan nomads living in the area where the trees are cut for the charcoal. During the most serious armed confrontation five days ago, at least six people were killed and several others wounded before the village of Kunyo-Barrow, 280 kilometers south of Mogadishu, was set ablaze. In an effort to end the businessmen's exercise in burning charcoal and chopping off the trees, the Tunni clan elders recently held a meeting with the businessmen. The talks were deadlocked as the businessmen or the charcoal burners argued that they had already invested a lot of money into the area and could not stop the business abruptly. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |