Somali gov't declares state of emergency

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by Abdurrahman Warsameh

MOGADISHU, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Somali government on Monday formally declared a state of emergency in the war torn country as government forces battle with insurgent fighters.

"The Somali government decided to impose state of emergency on the country so that we can overcome the difficult situation the country is going through," President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said in a press conference in his residence in Mogadishu.

The Somali president signed the declaration Monday after the Somali cabinet voted to impose the state of emergency on war-torn Somalia last week.

Somali government has been battling with Islamist insurgents for the past several weeks in a renewed fighting in the north of Mogadishu. Four senior Somali government officials were separately killed in insurgent attacks in last week while hundreds of civilians and combatants were either killed or wounded in the clashes.

Somali parliament speaker Sheikh Adam Madobe on Saturday appealed for neighboring states' troops be sent to Somalia to help Somali government fight Islamist rebels.

Somali president accused the radical Islamist Al-Shabaab movement of using foreign fighters in their war against the government. He said foreign terrorists from Al-Qaeda network are fighting alongside local Al-Shabaab group who he said want to make Somalia "a terrorist safe haven".