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| - Heavy fighting broke out Monday in a Somali border town between government forces and supporters of a fugitive minister hiding out in Kenya, according to witnesses and a lawmaker. The state security minister from Somalia's semi-autonomous Jubaland state, Abdirashid Hassan Abdinur, was arrested in August last year, but escaped from prison in Mogadishu in January and fled across the border. Amnesty International last month urged Kenya to hand him over to face justice, over allegations of torture and human rights abuses. While the situation was unclear at the remote border, witnesses told AFP that Somali government troops were battling fighters loyal to Abdinur in the town of Bulohawo, which is near the Kenyan town of Mandera. "The fighting was very heavy and both sides exchanged machine gun and anti-aircraft weapon fire. We don't have details so far but it was so fierce that it had affected the border town of Kenya," Abdiasiz Malabow, an elder from a nearby village told AFP. "The fighting started after days-long standoff between the two sides, and most people fled from the area," he added. Another witness Mohamed Nure confirmed there was heavy fighting in the area. "We cannot know the exact details as everybody is taking shelter currently," he said. On the Kenyan side in the town of Mandera, lawmaker Mohamud Maalim said the nearby fighting had forced locals to flee and seen schools shut. "It is all about fugitives held by the KDF (Kenya Defence Force) who were given refuge and we are appealing to President (Uhuru) Kenyatta to tell KDF to hand over the fugitives to Somalia," he said. Abdinur's arrest came at a time of rising tensions between the Somalia federal government and the government in Jubaland and their respective foreign backers. A disputed election in August last year saw Jubaland lawmakers re-elect Ahmed Madobe as their president -- a result which Mogadishu refused to recognise. Tensions over the poll threatened to spill over, with Kenya backing its ally Madobe while Ethiopia was siding with Mogadishu in trying to remove him, analysts said. Kenya sees Jubaland, a lush, relatively prosperous part of Somalia where it has many troops, as a buffer between it and Al-Shabaab militants who have staged several bloody attacks across the border. Observers say that for Kenya, having an ally in Jubaland is also key amid a spat with Mogadishu over maritime borders, with possibly lucrative Indian Ocean oil and gas reserves at stake. Tensions between Nairobi and Mogadishu have soared in recent days, with Somalia's foreign ministry issuing a statement slamming their neighbour for "ongoing violations" of its sovereignty and "encroachment in the border areas". In its response, on Sunday, Kenya rejected the claims and said it "takes great exception to the fabricated indictments of interfering in Somalia's internal affairs." Kenya also referred to a threat in February by the deputy governor of the Gedo region, in which Bulohawo is located, to "invade Kenya and march with his troops to Nairobi." str-fb/np/wai
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