Heavy fighting erupted on Tuesday in a previously quiet part of the Somali capital sending hundreds of residents fleeing, officials said.

The UN envoy for Somalia blamed Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys on Wednesday for recent fighting in Mogadishu.

Insurgent Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys on Tuesday said his group was the only force that could eliminate piracy in the Somali waters.

Somalia’s Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has not taken over the country’s exiled opposition, despite his claims to having become its new chairperson.

Somalia’s new opposition head, Islamist cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, has vowed to protect aid workers in the Horn of Africa nation.