Doctors: Over 57 killed in Somalia's Las Anod city

Doctors and emergency service providers have claimed over 57 people have been killed following heavy fighting between local militia and troops loyal to Somaliland, with members of the international community calling for the cessation of hostilities between the two groups.

Locals who have been fighting in Las Anod want to rejoin the federal government of Somalia, over three decades after they were hived off by the secessionist region of Somaliland, which is fighting for international recognition after 30 years of self-rule.

One of the managers of a public hospital in Las Anod, Abdimajid Hussein Sugulle, said over 400 people have been critically injured following a week of fighting between the Somaliland troops and forces loyal to the movement demanding immedate withdrawal from the government of Hargeisa.

Authorities in Somaliland, a region that separated from Somalia three decades ago and seeks recognition as an independent country, announced a unilateral cease-fire on Friday night. But residents said skirmishes continued in and around the eastern city, the AP reports.

For a number of years now, the city has been a center of a dispute between Puntland state and Somaliland, with both parties threatening to deploy troops to the Sool region. Sool and Sanaag were taken by Somaliland in 2007.

President Muse Bihi Abdi, the leader of the breakaway region, recently accused Mogadishu and Garowe of engineering skirmishes in Las Anod, a claim which the two parties have refuted. Traditional elders insist the only way peace can be restored in Las Anod is by having Somaliland troops withdrawn.

The United Nations has said the fighting has displaced more than 80,000 people. Water and electricity have been cut off amid shelling. Thousands are crossing over to Puntland for safety, the UN further noted.

"Indiscriminate shelling of civilians is unacceptable and must stop," the U.N. and international partners said in a statement earlier in the week.

The government of Somaliland insists that it won't withdraw solders from the troubled region while insisting that it has a duty to maintain law and order. In the same measure, Somalia has called for calmness while asking the warring parties to embrace ceasefire for the sake of peace and stability.