Tuesday, July 07, 2009
"By yesterday, the eight-week-long offensive ... had driven a staggering 204,000 residents from their homes, making it the biggest exodus from the troubled Somali capital since the Ethiopian intervention in 2007," said Ron Redmond, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
In the past week alone, 105 people had been killed and 382 wounded as violence reached the Kaaran, Shibis, Shangaani and Boondheere neighbourhoods of the capital, which were once "islands of peace," said Redmond.
"Many residents are fleeing their homes for the first time since the start of the Somali civil war in 1991," he added.
Militia groups Shebab and Hezb al-Islam, a more political group, launched an unprecedented nationwide offensive in May against the administration of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
The internationally backed Sharif has been holed up in his presidential quarters, protected by African Union peacekeepers as his forces were unable to reassert their authority over the capital.
The escalating conflict in Mogadishu was having a "devastating impact on the city's population," said Redmond.
Most of the people forced from their homes are fleeing to regions south of Mogadishu. Others are heading for the Afgooye corridor, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of Mogadishu, where 400,000 victims from previous conflicts have already sought refuge.
The UNHCR said the total number of internally displaced people in Somalia has now reached over 1.2 million.
Meanwhile, the number of refugees arriving at the Dadaab refugee camp near the Somali border in northern Kenya was continuing to rise, said Redmond, even though the Kenyan border is already officially closed to asylum seekers.
Since May, more than 11,000 Somalis have been registered at the refugee camp, bringing the total number of people seeking refuge at the camp to 284,306.
"The actual number of new arrivals is much higher since many of them head directly to urban centres" in Kenya such as Nairobi and Mombassa, said Redmond.
Source: AFP, July 07, 2009