The clashes, the first since several former warlords staked rival claims on the lucrative port and fertile hinterlands in May,
Has stoked fears among locals of a return to the clan wars that tipped the country into anarchy two decades ago.
Residents counted at least 13 bodies, nearly all militiamen, in the sandy streets of two neighborhoods which witnessed the brunt of Saturday’s fighting. Five people were killed a day earlier when the clashes first broke out.
“The Ras Kamboni militia now controls this part of the city,” Bile Nur, a resident of Kismayu’s Calanleey district told Reuters by telephone. “Residents are burying the dead of the militia driven out while Ras Kamboni are burying theirs.”
Earlier residents hid indoors as fighters riding in machine gun-mounted pick-up trucks battled for territorial control.
Businesses remained shut and the streets of Somalia’s second biggest city were empty of civilians as mortar blasts rang out.
Kismayu was controlled by Islamist al Shabaab until last September when the militants fled an offensive by Kenyan troops supported by Ras Kamboni, a militia group loyal to a former governor of Kismayu, Ahmed Madobe.
A local assembly last month declared Madobe president of the southern Jubaland region, handing him back control of Kismayu.
But Somalia’s central government, which does not view Madobe favorably, said his appointment was unconstitutional.
Within days, three other men had pronounced themselves president, including Barre Hirale, a pro-Mogadishu former defense minister.
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