MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Fighting erupted early Thursday between government forces and militias on the outskirts of Somalia’s southwestern city of Baidoa, with reports of heavy gunfire and civilians fleeing their homes.
Somalia’s Defense Ministry said government forces were responding to an attack by fighters loyal to former South West state President Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen. The ministry said that al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked extremist group, also took part in the attack. The claims could not immediately be independently verified.
The clashes are the latest escalation in a political and security dispute between Somalia’s federal government and Laftagareen over control of South West state. Federal forces took control of Baidoa on March 30, after which Laftagareen resigned. He had governed the state since 2018.
Clashes stopped in the early afternoon, but there was no official information on casualties or the extent of the fighting. Government troops patrolled the streets, ambulances rushed to the victims, and residents ventured out assessing damage and clearing out bloodied clothes from the pavement.
Dr. Abdikafi Omar Mohamud, head of the emergency department at Bay Regional Hospital in Baidoa, told The Associated Press that 71 wounded, including 15 women, and one dead civilian were received by his staff.
Abdullahi Haji, a Baidoa resident, told AP over the phone that he left his home as soon as he heard heavy gunfire and stray bullets landing in residential areas.
Baidoa, about 245 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Mogadishu, is a major humanitarian hub and hosts more than half a million people displaced by conflict and drought.
Last month, fighting in and around Baidoa left at least four civilians dead and 98 others wounded.
Associated Press writer Bishar Mayow Mukhtar in Baidoa, Somalia, contributed to this report.
In this photo taken with a smartphone, locals carry the body of a person, killed in fighting between government troops and militias in Baidoa, Somalia, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Bishar Mayow Mukhtar)
In this photo taken with a smartphone, security personnel patrol a street in Baidoa, Somalia, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Bishar Mayow Mukhtar)
In this photo taken with a smartphone, locals stand near a building riddled with bullet holes in Baidoa, Somalia, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Bishar Mayow Mukhtar)
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina requested a new passport Monday to facilitate her return from exile two years after she was ousted in a mass uprising.
The government has been seeking her extradition from India and earlier dismissed suggestions she needed new identification documents to return home. Hasina told The Associated Press in an interview this month that she would return to Bangladesh in December at any cost.
In a letter seen by The Associated Press that was emailed to Bangladesh's top diplomat in London, a counsel of Hasina urged the diplomat to take necessary action to provide her a passport and national identity card.
“This is a significant step toward her homecoming. Having had her documents revoked by the previous regime, Her Excellency looks forward to reclaiming her fundamental rights as a Bangladeshi citizen and receiving the necessary documents,” Abu Obaidha Arin, an aide to Hasina, told the AP.
“She is determined to return to Bangladesh by December, and she will undoubtedly return home,” he said.
It was not immediately possible to obtain comment from the Bangladesh government.
On Thursday, Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir said Bangladesh wants Hasina to be handed over under an extradition treaty with India. India has declined to hand her over.
“We want Hasina to be handed over. She will be handed over. She is a terrorist. She is a fugitive. There is an active extradition treaty between Bangladesh and India,” he told reporters in Dhaka.
Bangladesh's military sent Hasina to India after student-led protests forced her from power on Aug. 5, 2024. A special tribunal in 2025 sentenced her to death for crimes against humanity, ruling that she was responsible for ordering the crackdown, which left hundreds of people dead and thousands of others injured.
The United Nations has said nearly 1,400 people were killed. Hasina denies any wrongdoing. She also has rejected the tribunal’s verdict and challenged the legitimacy of the trial.
An interim government led Bangladesh after Hasina's ouster and held an election in February that Hasina’s Awami League party was barred from contesting.
Tarique Rahman, the son of a longtime archrival of Hasina, came to power in a landslide.
FILE - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arrives to attend The Queen's Dinner during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at Buckingham Palace in London on April 19, 2018. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/Pool Photo via AP, File)
