Somali troops patrol Mogadishu streets

Somali and US officials vowed yesterday to work together to stabilise the chaotic state as hundreds of Somali government troops deployed in Mogadishu to prevent further unrest after anti-Ethiopian protests.

Washington's top diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, has been shuttling around the region as Western and African leaders discuss an African peacekeeping force for Somalia after two weeks of war saw Ethiopian and government troops force out Islamist fighters who had captured much of the south.

Ms Frazer has said Washington was donating $16 million to help fund a proposed African peacekeeping force and she has called for dialogue between Somali groups, including "remnants" of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council.

After meeting Frazer in Nairobi, Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said: "We are going to work together for the stabilisation of Somalia".

Weekend protests in Mogadishu and provincial towns illustrated the need for security forces.

In scenes reminiscent of the lawlessness associated with Mogadishu, which largely stopped during six months of strict Islamist rule, crowds hurled stones and burnt tyres on Saturday to demonstrate against the forces that ousted the Islamists.

Witnesses said three people, including a young boy were killed when Ethiopian troops, backing the interim government, and protesters exchanged shots. A government source said only one person was killed in gunfire between protesters and police.

Yesterday, resident Abdifatah Abdikadir said he saw hundreds of troops in the neighbourhoods where the protests had erupted.

"Around 500 government troops have been deployed in the streets," he said. "I also saw about 15 technicals mounted with heavy machine guns," he said referring to pick-ups with guns.

A senior security source said the troop deployment was aimed at preventing further unrest: "We have deployed so many troops in order to prevent any problems," the source said. "The city is calm, there is no problem at all."

The source said an Islamist belonging to a court formerly headed by Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, was killed overnight. The movement arose from Mogadishu sharia courts.

"We don't know whether this is a targeted killing or he was killed by thugs... He was not a senior figure," the source said.

In the southcentral town of Baladwayne, hundreds took to the streets demanding Ethiopian troops free a military commander detained for refusing to hand over an ousted Islamist because of a government amnesty offer to the defeated movement.

Government troops fired shots in the air to disperse the crowd and calm later returned, residents said, adding that no Ethiopian troops were present.

Ethiopian and government forces pushed the Islamists out of Mogadishu on December 28 and the government, which was confined to the provincial town Baidoa, now wants to reinstall itself in the capital, one of the world's most dangerous cities.

It had given Mogadishu residents until last Thursday to hand in their weapons or be disarmed by force. But government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told local radio on Saturday the disarmament programme was postponed. Few weapons have been handed in so far, as residents fear Mogadishu could slide back into the anarchy and clan violence that had gripped the city since the 1991 ouster of a dictator. Within hours of the Islamists fleeing, militiamen loyal to warlords reappeared at checkpoints in the city where they used to rob and terrorise civilians.

President Abdullahi Yusuf asked Addis Ababa to train Somali forces, Ethiopian state television said on Saturday, after the Somali leader met Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Meles has said his troops will leave Somalia within weeks.

Any prolonged Ethiopian deployment would likely anger many Somalis who resent the presence of soldiers from their militarily superior neighbour, which has invaded Somalia numerous times in what Addis Ababa calls defensive missions. Yemen's Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi, meanwhile, was quoted as saying some Islamist leaders had arrived in Yemen, creating an opportunity for talks with Somalia's government.