Mar 25, 2007
Most families packed their belongings onto minibuses and headed southwest to surrounding villages, fearing that fighting between Ethiopia-backed government troops and Islamist insurgents could resume at any time.
Those who could not find shelter made do with laying out mats under trees on the sand. "We have nothing left, not even sheets or a blanket," cried one desperate woman. "The fighting has to stop."
Back in Mogadishu, public transport and other traffic was running normally again while civilians came timidly onto streets still littered with the debris of the fierce fighting.
Military vehicles armed with heavy-calibre guns, including large machineguns, criss-crossed the arteries of the capital in the wake of the street battles last Wednesday through Friday.
At the K4 junction of southern Mogadishu, a Ugandan contingent of African Union peacekeepers deployed to help government troops regain control, held their positions, some on top of buildings. The junction is a notoriously volatile but strategic area.
Further on, groups of soldiers from Somalia's transitional government manned their checkpoints. They also conducted patrols in government-controlled areas of the city, but not to the southern zones held by the Islamist rebels.
One witness told AFP that several gatherings of rebels hostile to the transitional government and its Ethiopian army backers had been held in southern areas on Sunday morning.
With the rebel fighters regrouping, those civilians who could manage the trek had fled the capital.
Increasing numbers of people were gathering at the village of Alamada, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) southwest of the capital.
"I'm here with all my family for 20 days now," said 42-year-old Mohammed Abdi Fatah.
"We fled because of the problems between the Ethiopians, the government and the militias. Every night there were shootings and the children were crying. We had to leave."
Fatah, like 100 or so other families, had settled his family under the low branches of an acacia tree. Beside him, his children slept on a mattress thrown on the ground.
"We have left because it was becoming too dangerous and risky," said the veiled daughter of one family, Souad Mahmud Ussama, 20, as her family built an improvised shelter from sheets of metal.
"My parents had the money to built this kind of house but it is very expensive," she added.
Only the richest people have been able to flee the capital. The journey to Alamada itself costs more than 100 dollars (75 euros).
"We hope we won't stay long here, that we'll go back as soon as peace has come back," said Souad. "But there was too much fighting in our area and many people have died."
According to figures from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), more than 40,000 people have been forced to flee the fighting in Mogadishu in recent months.
"This situation is caused by our leaders," said Hassan Abdi, an 18-year-old student and another of those forced from his home.
"The government doesn't want to organise reconciliation, and the militias don't want to disarm. But at the end of the day, we are the ones suffering."
Somalia, a nation of about 10 million, has been wracked by factional bloodletting since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre cleared the way for a deadly power struggle that has scuppered more than 14 peacemaking attempts.
At least 24 people died this week and hundreds more were wounded in three days of clashes, despite a brief truce Friday.
The government has vowed to keep on fighting until the insurgents are defeated. They in turn have said they will pursue their attacks.
Dozens more people have died since January when Ethiopian-Somali troops ousted an Islamist movement from south and central Somalia, prompting a deadly guerrilla warfare.
Source: AFP, Mar 25