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Hundreds of Ethiopian troop reinforcements entered Mogadishu Monday, after four days of heavy fighting sparked by an Ethiopian offensive against Islamist rebels and clan gunmen.
Residents on the outskirts of Mogadishu said the fresh Ethiopian deployment entered the capital on the road from Baidoa, where the interim government is based.
Ethiopian troops and their military hardware remained in positions in the Ali Kamin neighbourhood, near the main soccer stadium, where fighting has been fiercest and sporadic gunfire rang out Monday.
No clear death toll is available from fighting since the Ethiopian army launched its drive to rid the capital of hostile militia on Thursday, but the International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that dozens of civilians have been killed.
The UN refugee agency said Sunday that some 10,000 people had fled Mogadishu violence over the past three days alone.
A doctor told AFP Monday that Ethiopian troops had raided the hospital in Ali Kamin, which has also been hit by mortar shells.
“The Ethiopian forces broke into the hospital. They broke the doors of the offices. They have collected all the medicine and they also detained one of the doctors,” said doctor Muhamud Hassan, from the Al Hayat hospital.
“We don't know why they are doing this but we are not involved in the fighting. There are a lot of patients and some have been wounded by artillery shells that landed in the hospital,” Hassan said.
Elders from the capital's dominant Hawiye clan Sunday called for an end to the fighting, which international observers say was the worst in more than 15 years, but Ethiopia did not comment on the second attempt at a truce in as many weeks.
The elders asked the African Union peacekeeping mission, which has some 1,500 Ugandan troops in Mogadishu, to monitor the implementation of a ceasefire.
One Ugandan soldier was killed and five injured over the weekend, marking the first death among African Union peacekeepers deployed here.
Ethiopian forces helped the Somali transitional government drive out the leaders of the Islamist movement from south and central Somalia three months ago.
