SOMALIA’s army has said it has driven opposition fighters out of Baidoa, the largest city in Somalia’s South West State, after hours of heavy fighting.
The clashes erupted before dawn on Monday, when fighters loyal to the state’s former president, Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen, attacked positions held by federal forces, the Defence Ministry said.
The ministry added that the assailants used vehicles laden with explosives but were repelled after federal forces killed 30 attackers. It accused Laftagareen’s forces of fighting alongside the al-Qaeda-linked armed group al-Shabab.
Earlier, in a Facebook post, Laftagareen’s camp claimed that its forces had captured the city centre.
Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi, reporting from Nairobi in Kenya, said local residents described intense fighting in the early hours of the morning.
“People were just waking up, starting their morning prayers, when they started hearing blasts, gunfire, heavy fire as well. We have been talking to people who live in Baidoa who say that some of their homes and buildings have been destroyed,” Soi said.
Residents told the AFP news agency that the clashes were the fiercest since the Somali army took control of the city in March. Doctors Without Borders, which runs facilities in Baidoa, told the agency that several casualties had reached its hospital and fighting had occurred on two fronts.
Baidoa lies about 245km (150 miles) northwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu and hosts hundreds of thousands of people displaced by war and climate events.
Laftagareen had led South West State for more than seven years when, in March, he severed ties with Mogadishu over controversial constitutional amendments pushed through by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
The changes extended Mohamud’s term in office by a year and drastically altered Somalia’s fragile power-sharing arrangement, enshrined in its 2012 provisional constitution.
The move sparked clashes across the nation, including in the capital, amid which the Somali army seized Baidoa, leading Laftagareen to resign.
Fighters loyal to him have struck the city repeatedly since, including a failed attempt to retake control of the state in May.
The clashes and instability are contributing to a severe humanitarian crisis in the country, where millions are facing malnutrition and famine.