Mogadishu: Heavy fighting has broken out in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a day after the UN World Food Programme airlifted in its first famine emergency aid. At least four people are reported to have been killed as government forces, backed by African Union troops, attacked insurgents.Media reports say the clashes are in northern areas and unlikely to affect the aid effort.
Thousands have arrived into government-controlled suburbs in search of food.
The reports say if the pro-government forces manage to gain more ground this could enable aid agencies to increase the areas where they can deliver food aid to victims of the severe drought.
The WFP delivery is the first airlift of food aid since the UN declared a famine in two southern areas of Somalia last week.
Al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda linked group which controls much of Somalia, has banned the WFP from its areas.
The fighting started just after dawn when the government and African peacekeeping troops launched an offensive on an al-Shabab stronghold in the north of the city, about 7km (four miles) from the airport.
Government officers told the media they had gained some ground and were now trying to dislodge al-Shabab from Mogadishu stadium.
Lt Col Paddy Ankunda, a spokesman for the 9,000-strong AU force in Mogadishu, said 41 al-Shabab fighters had surrendered during the clashes.
The weak interim government controls about 60% of Mogadishu, including the airport, the port, the presidential palace and areas around the city’s largest market.
Tens of thousands of Somalis have fled areas controlled by al-Shabab to Mogadishu and neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia in search of assistance.
