MOGADISHU, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The death toll from fighting in Somalia has reached 16,210 since the start of last year, a local human rights group said on Wednesday. The Mogadishu-based Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation has been tracking the casualties since Islamist insurgents launched a rebellion against the U.N.-backed interim government and its Ethiopian military allies early in 2007. Elman said 7,574 civilians had been killed so far in 2008, adding to 8,636 killed the year before. In a report, it said nearly 29,000 people had been wounded over that two-year period. (Editing by Charles Dick)
A Melka Guba villager holds her sick and malnourished child in the village around Negele, southern Oromia, Ethiopia, in this November 18, 2008 handout photo. Successive years of drought have had ...
