Nairobi/Mogadishu - Some 1 million Somalis are now
internally displaced, after recent violent clashes spiked the number
by sending 200,000 people fleeing their homes in the last two weeks
alone, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said Tuesday.
Some 600,000 people have poured out of the capital Mogadishu since
the transitional government ousted a popular Islamist group at the
New Year, sparking a bloody insurgency that has killed hundreds and
is responsible for the exodus.
Another 400,000 people have been displaced since civil war broke
out in 1991.
UNHCR said the displaced, most of them living in makeshift camps
some 30 kilometres outside the capital, faced 'dire' living
conditions.
'Families continue to lack proper shelter and consistently resort
to using any material - mostly plastic bags and rags - to patch up
their 'tukuls' - flimsy dome-shaped shelters,' the world body said.
The biggest concerns amongst the displaced in Afgoye, just outside
Mogadishu, is food and health care, with the one hospital and mobile
clinics run by aid agencies unable to meet the growing needs.
While most Somalis said they feel safe in Afgoye, security is
becoming more of a concern, after an explosion on Sunday killed six
people, UNHCR said.
The fighting between Ethiopian-backed government troops and
insurgents has mostly been limited to Mogadishu, with sporadic
incidents in other areas of the Horn of Africa country.
Somalia was plunged into anarchy after the 1991 toppling of
dictator Mohammed Siad Barre by warlords and a succession of
transitional government has been unable to restore effective rule to
the country.
More than 100,000 Somalis live in refugee camps across the border
in Kenya.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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