UNHCR said Friday it was extremely worried about the worsening
situation for civilians in Somalia, where fresh outbreaks of relentless
and indiscriminate fighting are ravaging Mogadishu and other areas of
the country.
"We are especially concerned about the safety and well-being of some
8,300 people who, without any means to get out of Mogadishu, remain
displaced within the capital," a UNHCR spokesman, Andrej Mahecic, told
journalists in Geneva. "As the fighting rages on, aid agencies cannot
access and assist these extremely vulnerable IDPs [internally displaced
people]," he added.
The refugee agency estimates that more than 100,000 Somali civilians
have been forced to flee their homes across the country since the
beginning of this year.
The latest fighting between government forces and the Al-Shabaab
militia is concentrated in Mogadishu's northern suburbs of Shangaani,
Cabdulcasiis, Yaaqshiid and Kaaraan. Since February, 33,000 Somalis
have been driven out of their homes in Mogadishu. Almost 14,600 of them
fled to the Afgooye corridor, a stretch of road some 30 kilometres west
of Mogadishu. There, they are jammed together in makeshift settlements
which are home to more than 366,000 internally displaced people (IDPs).
Thousands more have fled to other parts of the country.
Across the border in Kenya, meanwhile, nearly 10,000 new Somali
refugees were registered over the first nine weeks of this year. UNHCR
fears that the overcrowded Dadaab refugee complex in northern Kenya
will soon see a significant increase in the number of new arrivals. The
three camps at Dadaab currently host some 270,000 refugees.
Somalia remains one of the countries generating the highest number
of displaced people and refugees in the world. There are more than 1.4
million IDPs in Somalia while over 560,000 Somalis live as refugees in
neighbouring and nearby countries.
UNHCR
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