About ten people have been killed and more than 26 others injured in a fighting and an artillery battle between Somalia government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers known as (AMISOM) and Al shabaab fighters in Mogadishu.

By Abdi Hajji 

Local residents said the fighting began on Sunday afternoon after Al Shabaab insurgents launched an attack on TFG and AMISOM bases in the northern part of Mogadishu, adding what had made this more hazardous was that both the two sides started to exchange artillery bombardments, continuing viciously all night.

"We have so far taken 26 injured civilian people to the hospitals in Mogadishu" Ali Muse Sheikh, Head of Mogadishu ambulance services told RNW. He said that about ten civilian dead bodies had been collected in different areas of the capital.

The death toll may increase as tense situation reported from battle zone in the north of the city as sporadic gunfire could be heard since this morning, he added.

"At least 10 children have been wounded in mortar shell landed in a Holly Quran school in a TFG controlled district of Hamar Weyne. Two of injured were in serious condition" Witnesses said.

Abdullah Ibrahim Sahal, TFG's Hamar Weyne district commissioner, expressed concern about the incident, describing it as gruesome action against civilians committed by Al shabaab insurgents.

This comes as Somali president Sheikh Sharif Ahmed recently appealed once more for more help for Somalia, but said the country should look inside for a solution to insurgency by groups such as al Shabaab. In the meantime, Uganda proclaimed it was ready to send extra 2,000 troops to Somalia.

Somalia’s Al Qaeda linked Al shabaab claimed the responsibility of recent deadly explosions in Ugandan capital Kampala as it controls large swathes of southern Somalia and Mogadishu.

Since plunging into anarchy in 1991, hundreds of thousands have perished from famine, war and disease in Somalia. Many attempts to set up central rule have failed.