AFRICA/SOMALIA - Over 200 dead and 57,000 refugees as a result of fighting in Mogadishu; President Ahmed makes appeal

Mogadishu (Agenzia Fides) – The President of Somalia has made an appeal to the international community, asking them to help his country to expel the hundreds of foreign troops that have sided with the Islamic fundamentalists.
“The world should help us get rid of the foreigners who are fighting against the Somali government,” Ahmed said. “Otherwise the country and the government will be in danger.”
President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed made the appeal as a radical Islamic group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed seven people over the weekend (on May 24). The political leader of the radical group al-Shabab, Sheik Husein Ali Fidow, said a teenager carried out the attack on a military base in the Somali capital Sunday.
Authorities suspect the bomber was one of some 300 foreigners - from countries including Pakistan, Yemen and the United States - that the U.N. and others say are fighting alongside Islamist insurgents. For some time now, the US authorities have launched an alert on several Somali immigrants to the United States, who have joined radicalist groups. Some of these people later return to Somalia, to fight in the fundamentalist militia.
In the last two weeks, over 200 people have been killed and hundreds wounded by the violence between the Government and the fundamentalists militias. The U.N. said the violence has prompted 57,000 Somalis to flee the city. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 25/5/2009)