April 5th 1995
London BBC World Service “Focus on Africa” program (in English) — 1505 GMT
There are fresh reports of fighting in the breakaway republic of Somaliland. Last week, battle erupted in the city of Burao between forces loyal to ousted Somaliland Leader Abdirahman Tur and forces of President Mohamed Egal’s government. It looked like the beginning of an all-out war, though Egal dismissed it as a little more than banditry. Well, now there are claims and counterclaims about who controls Burao. But one thing seems certain; a lot of fighting has been going on. From neighboring Djibouti, Christophe Farah telexed this report:
Abdirahman Tur’s militias claimed to have taken control of Burao town following a three day battle that began on 28 March. According to a Djibouti-based radio operator who spoke to members of Abdirahman Tur’s (Gahaji Isaks) subclan, up to 2,000 people were killed during the battle of Burao. The radio operator said that he had been told that the streets of Burao were littered with dead bodies, and that there are fears of an outbreak of epidemic diseases. One official of the Burao Red Crescent, Mr. Abdi Awal, is quoted as saying that the whole city is in need of immediate relief action.
Civilians who support Mohamed Ibrahim Egal are reported to have fled to the east, as far as Las Anod. Civilians opposed to him are reported to have fled to the south. An MSF [Medecins Sans Frontiere] Holland official based in Djibouti, Mr. (Edwin Van Derbohrt), said that the situation in Burao is still unclear. He said that there was no way of determining which faction was having the upper hand, and he described Burao as a ghost town, with only a few civilians left in the eastern part of the city. Mr. (van Derbohrt) said that 90 seriously injured people, including fighters, had been rushed to the port of Berbera. He said the situation was ominous and that an MSF warehouse containing medicines had been looted.
Meanwhile, a Somali traveler who arrived in Djibouti from Burao yesterday, told me that Burao is virtually under the control of Egal’s troops. He claimed that after some initial successes, the rebels had been driven back, and are now concentrated to the west of the town.
[London BBC World Service in English at 1705 GMT on 5 April in its “African News” section adds the following: “The leader of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, has confirmed reports of fierce fighting over the past week between government troops and rebel forces. In a BBC interview, President Egal said there had been heavy casualties on both sides. He called on the rebels to put down their arms and join discussions in the capital Hargeysa on the future of Somaliland. Some of the heaviest fighting has been in the city of Burao, 150 km east of the capital. Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed there.”]
FBIS-AFR-95-066, 6 Apr. 1995, p. 5
The Somali History Archive 