Cease-Fire Promises Don’t Hold in Somalia

The death toll from four days of fighting between secular warlords and Islamic extremists rose to 96 on Wednesday despite promises of a cease-fire, as negotiators shuttled between the two sides trying to make peace.

The fighting has escalated steadily since Sunday, when the militants and warlords took up strategic positions in Mogadishu, the capital. Most victims have been civilians caught in the crossfire. Nearly 200 people have been wounded, doctors say.

Heavy-weapons fire echoed through the city Wednesday as the fighting spread. The battle between the secular Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism and the Islamic Court Union has centered on the northern neighborhood of Sii-Sii, with neither side gaining an advantage.

Abdinura Siad, an alliance militia commander, met with clan elders Monday afternoon.

“The alliance is not satisfied with the current mediating efforts. Those who are mediating are biased,” he said. “The Islamists should stop fighting, then we can stop. We are only defending ourselves.”

For a second day, Islamic Court Union Chairman Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed said he was ready to observe a cease-fire.

“From now on we are going to cease fire, because this is good for everybody,” he said.

But as night fell, gunfire could still be heard in northern Mogadishu, and mediators said they were still trying to broker an agreement.

Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi, speaking from his government’s headquarters in Baidoa, 150 miles northwest of Mogadishu, also called on all sides to stop fighting. Though his government has United Nations backing, it has so far failed to assert itself outside Baidoa.

The U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, issued a statement Wednesday appealing for “leaders on both sides to step back from the brink.”