(Adds Islamist, resident quotes) By Sahal Abdulle MOGADISHU, April 30 (Reuters) - Minibuses with mattresses strapped to the roof ferried scores of Somalis back to their shell-shattered capital on Monday, three days after the government claimed significant gains against insurgents. Carrying pots and pans, many returning home said they would avoid northern Mogadishu, the scene of some of the worst fighting in 16 years between allied Somali-Ethiopian troops and a mixture of Islamist gunmen and disgruntled clansmen. "We can't go back to where the troops are. There is some unexploded ordnance in my neighbourhood," said Maryam Ali, a resident of the Towfiq neighbourhood. One cafe owner said he planned to reopen his business in a couple of days, but would wait before sending for his family. Although the machineguns, tanks and rocket-propelled grenades have fallen silent since Friday, many residents feared the insurgents, who include foreign jihadists, were regrouping. The battle for control of Mogadishu has killed at least 1,300 people in recent weeks and turned parts of the coastal city into a ghost town. The United Nations has warned of a looming catastrophe with 365,000 people fleeing the capital over the past three months -- most of them clinging to survival under trees in surrounding towns or out in the open. Others said they came back because despite Mogadishu's dangers, it was better than the chancy life of a refugee. "We fled to Marka and went through a lot of hardship. The place was too hot, too crowded and a lot of mosquitoes. When we heard the war has stopped, we decided to come back to Mogadishu, but I'm still worried," said Nimo Mohyadin, carrying three children. 'HELP THE COLONISERS' In an apparent gesture of reconciliation, President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Sunday held face-to-face meetings with their main political opponents -- Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan. The Hawiye have opposed a government they see favouring Yusuf's rival Darod clan. "We met the president and the prime minister yesterday and we agreed principally to solve through negotiations the disagreements that we have between us," Hawiye elder Ugaz Abdi Dahir told Reuters, adding that another meeting was planned. The government, established in 2004, is determined to restore central rule to the Horn of Africa country for the first time since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Since announcing victory over the insurgents, the government has ordered civilians to disarm and deployed troops to sweep rebel areas for insurgents and looters. Former Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed and fired parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan on Monday urged the Ethiopian troops to be forced out of Somalia, and accused African Union peacekeepers of helping them invade. "We again call upon the world to look at what's happening in Somalia and take Ethiopia out of our country," the two said in a statement from the Eritrean capital Asmara. Ethiopia and the United States say Eritrea is arming and training the insurgents. Eritrea and Ethiopia have been bitter rivals since a 1998-2000 border war. (Additional reporting by Jack Kimball in Asmara)
