43 bodies recovered in clashes in disputed Somali town

The International Committee of the Red Cross says 43 bodies were recovered last week from the frontline of the latest fighting in a disputed town in Somaliland.

The ICRC said in a statement on Friday that another 110 wounded were taken to hospitals last week by the Somali Red Crescent Society, amid clashes that have been going on for months in and around Las-Anod.

Somaliland broke away from Somalia thirty years ago and sought recognition as an independent country. Somaliland’s security forces are fighting clan militias who want to be part of Somalia, whose Puntland state has for years disputed Las-Anod with Somaliland.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the fighting. It is not known how many hundreds of people were killed in total. The ICRC reported “widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure” in Las-Anod, the capital of the Sool region.

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The Somaliland government on Thursday condemned in a statement what it claims was footage showing mistreatment of its captured soldiers and reminded fighters of the Geneva Conventions guidelines, as well as Islamic customs, for the treatment of prisoners .

Hundreds of people were captured on both sides in the latest fighting, and the ICRC said he managed to make his first visit to 300 people detained by the militias. Four injured inmates were taken to hospital, the statement said. ICRC staff had previously visited captured militias in the Somaliland capital.

Somaliland’s defense ministry denied earlier this year that the army had bombed the main hospital in Las-Anod.

With Africa news

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