The director of a hospital in a disputed city in the Somaliland region says at least 145 people have been killed in more than two months of fighting between anti-government fighters and Somaliland security forces after local elders declared their intention to reunite with Somalia.
Abdimajid Sugulle, with the public hospital in Las-Anod, told The Associated Press on Saturday that more than 1,080 other people have been wounded and over 100,000 families have fled the city of Las-Anod since late December. Most civilians have fled, he said.
The director accused Somaliland forces of destroying the hospital’s laboratory, blood bank and patient ward in mortar attacks. "The Somaliland forces who are positioned outside the town have been shelling civilian residents and medical facilities indiscriminately. No single day passes without shelling and casualties," he told the AP by phone.
Some earlier reports, however, claimed a higher death toll and displacement numbers, at over 200 killed and affecting over 200,000 families.
"210 civilians were killed and 680 others were wounded in the fighting, which broke out between Somaliland forces and the local community in Las-Anod," the mayor of the contested town, Abdirahim Ali Ismail, told a press conference Thursday.
Somaliland’s Defense Ministry has denied shelling any hospital, and the government has asserted it has a "continuous commitment" to a cease-fire it declared on Feb. 10.
"Indiscriminate shelling of civilians is unacceptable and must stop," the United Nations and international partners warned last month.
Somaliland separated from Somalia three decades ago and seeks international recognition as an independent country. Somaliland and the Somali state of Puntland have disputed Las-Anod for years, but the eastern city has been under Somaliland’s control.
