50 killed in Somali-Ethiopian border clashes

At least 50 people were killed and scores injured in week-long border clashes between Somali clan militia and an Ethiopian paramilitary unit, Somali authorities said on Monday.

Most of the victims were civilians caught in the week-long fighting between the Somali militia and the Ethiopian force known as "Liyu police", Xinhua quoted Somalia's Galgadud region Governor Hussein Weheliye Cirfo as saying.

"The Liyu police unit attacked the Somali nomad community, killing 50 people, among them 11 women," said Cirfo, adding that hundreds of families fled the villages as fighting escalated on Monday.

Somali Interior Minister Abdirahman Odowaa said his government was working with Ethiopian authorities to resolve the issue.

"We are talking with our counterparts in Ethiopia so that we can find an amicable solution to this problem," Odowaa said.

Liyu police is an Ethiopian paramilitary unit operating in Ethiopia's ethnic Somali region.