Gunmen plundered 12 truck-loads of computers and bags of sugar from a shelled Coca Cola plant in Mogadishu on Friday during a lull in fighting between allied Somali-Ethiopian troops and insurgents, a local manager said. The odd stray bullet was heard in the Somali capital, a day after PM Ali Mohamed Gedi claimed gains in the government's 9-day offensive against Islamist fighters and some clansmen. But many Somalis, undergoing a refugee exodus worse than Iraq in recent months, were skeptical the war was winding down.

There was no respite for medical workers struggling with little or no supplies to patch up the wounded, many ferried to overflowing hospitals in wheelbarrows and donkey carts. Trapped by fighting, several women gave birth in an improvised maternity ward – a grass hut under a tree, where one midwife has delivered 6 babies in the last 3 days. Some 350,000 people have fled Mogadishu since February, more than 1/3 of its 1 million population.

Main Source: Reuters