MOGADISHU, Somalia — Hours of intense combat between government forces and militias in Baidoa, a southwestern Somali city, resulted in the deaths of dozens of fighters and at least four civilians, with 98 more injured, according to a hospital official.
The clashes erupted early Monday as militia forces assaulted government positions on the city’s periphery. Baidoa, housing over half a million people displaced by conflict and drought, saw at least 30 insurgents killed, though casualty figures for government troops have not yet been released.
Dr. Abdikafi Omar Mohamud, head of the emergencies department at Bay Regional Hospital in Baidoa, reported that the fighting claimed the lives of at least four civilians and left 98 others injured, among them 28 women and an elderly man struck by stray bullets.
The recent violence further strained health services already under pressure to care for residents and displaced persons in Baidoa, situated roughly 245 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Mogadishu.
Mohamud’s hospital, which had only 40 beds available, erected an emergency tent to accommodate the surge of patients after the fighting began. Medical staff also faced shortages of essential medicines, he added.
Calm returned to Baidoa on Tuesday as security forces patrolled main streets and inspected buildings and vehicles damaged during the clashes. Residents cautiously emerged from their homes, though troops maintained a heavy presence in key areas.
The violence erupted shortly after 5 a.m. Monday with two explosions near an eastern military base outside Baidoa. Minutes later, heavy fighting broke out around another base in Bonkay, south of the city, before armed assailants entered Baidoa and exchanged fire with government troops.
Fighters loyal to former South West State President Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen displaced the new administration’s troops from parts of Baidoa for approximately six hours before being expelled from the city, according to Samira Gaid, a regional security analyst at Balqiis Insights.
In separate attacks, al-Shabab militants, linked to al-Qaida, struck two Somali military positions on Baidoa’s outskirts, Gaid said. The timing of these assaults prompted allegations that the extremist group coordinated with Laftagareen’s forces.
Somalia’s federal government asserted that the attackers comprised militias aligned with Laftagareen and fighters from al-Shabab. The government claimed its forces killed nearly 30 assailants and captured several others, while South West state authorities reported a higher toll, estimating about 50 attackers killed.
Neither figure could be independently verified, and authorities have not explained the discrepancy.
South West Internal Security Minister Isak Mohamed Korsaar stated on Tuesday that government troops recovered the bodies of al-Shabab fighters and detained others alive.
“The militias that attacked us were not alone,” Korsaar told reporters. “We have confirmed that they were accompanied by al-Shabab.”
The fighting follows months of tension over South West’s leadership and its electoral process. The federal government rejected Laftagareen’s contested indirect re‑election in March.
Federal troops seized control of Baidoa on March 30, prompting Laftagareen, who had governed South West since 2018, to announce his resignation.
“When elite disputes are settled militarily, they create the conditions that the terrorist group exploits,” she said. “It is Somali civilians who ultimately bear the cost.”