The president of Somalia was overthrown Monday by a rival clan leader, sources quoted the nation's official radio as saying.
The radio report could not be immediately confirmed.The sources, who include diplomats and aid workers, quoted Radio Mogadishu as saying that Gen. Mohamed Farrah Aidid had toppled President Ali Mahdi Mohamed. Ali Mahdi had ruled the Horn of Africa nation for 10 months. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity.
The report follows two days of fighting in Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, between tribal factions of the ruling United Somali Congress that overthrew President Mohamed Siad Barre in January and named Ali Mahdi to the top post of the strategically located country between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
The radio report was monitored in Mogadishu by aid agencies who spoke to their representatives after hearing the broadcast, sources in Nairobi said.
Ali Mahdi's whereabouts are unknown, the sources said.
Nearly all telecommunications to Somalia were severed during street fighting in January that ended Siad Barre's 21-year rule. Diplomatic sources say up to 20,000 people died in those battles.