London BBC World Service in English 0910 GMT – World News Program on the situation in Mogadishu from Peter Biles

Reports from Somalia say that rebels have taken over the presidential palace in the capital, Mogadishu, and President Siad Barre has fled. This follows four weeks of heavy fighting in the city as the rebels of the United Somali Congress continued their efforts to overthrow the president. As the palace was ransacked, a rebel spokesman appealed for calm. Much of the latest information on Somali is being supplied on a radio link by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres. Peter Biles reports from the Kenyan city of Mombasa, where the charity is in regular contact with Mogadishu:

[Begin Biles recording]

According to reports from Mogadishu, the presidential palace, Villa Somalia, was taken over by rebel forces on Saturday night after a day of intense fighting in the capital. President Siad Barre is said to have been seen leaving his official residence in a tank, 15 minutes before the palace was ransacked and looted by hundreds of people. One person in Mogadishu said it was like a popular uprising.

Siad Barre’s whereabouts are not known, but when he left the palace, he was accompanied by contingents of loyal troops. Government forces are still said to control a small enclave around the main airport and are showing no sign of surrendering. Volunteers from the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, who are working at the hospital in the rebel held area of the city, say that the shelling by the government troops has stopped. But there are reports of hundreds of people having been killed or wounded in the last few days. The medical team says the hospital is full and emergency operations are being undertaken all the time.

A spokesman for the rebel United Somali Congress in Mogadishu, Hussein Mohamed Bogh, has called for calm and invited all opposition figures to a national conference to discuss a democratic future for Somalia.

[End recording]

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