Clashes near IDP camps causing more displacement

[Jacaylbaro]

NAIROBI, 10 January 2008 (IRIN) - Civil society organisations in Somalia have urged government-allied forces and insurgents to avoid clashing near camps for displaced civilians, saying such violence creates further displacement.

 

Hundreds of families were caught up in fierce fighting on 8 January between Ethiopian and government forces and insurgents in Dayniile district in the northwestern outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu.

 

The families that were earlier displaced from Mogadishu and sought refuge in Dayniile had to flee again, Asha Sha'ur Ugas, a senior member of Mogadishu's civil society groups, told IRIN.

 

"They fled further into the bush and are now even worse off than they were before," she said on 10 January. Some of the displaced had moved "three to four times already".

 

Not many aid agencies operate in the area due to the security situation in Mogadishu and its environs, making the plight of the displaced families more serious.

 

"Some of the displaced have begun returning to their previous camps but others have gone into the nearby village of Saqiirow," Ugas said. "We are appealing to both sides to stop using the camps as a battleground."

 

An estimated 13,000 families (78,000 people) are camped around the district, with little or no help coming in, according to Haji Omar Ali, the Dayniile district commissioner.

 

The fighting in Dayniile started when Ethiopian troops entered the area to flush out suspected insurgents, said a local source.

 

Abdi Haji Gobdon, a government spokesman, told IRIN that security forces went to Dayniile in response to attacks by insurgents in the area. "A number of attacks targeting security force positions originated from there. That is why the security forces undertook the operation."

 

According to medical sources, up to 20 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the fighting.

 

Sha'ur said the situation of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Dayniile district "was already dire and any more fighting will make it even worse". She appealed to aid agencies to "redouble their efforts to assist and stop making excuses. The people here need help now, not talk about insecurity," she said.

 

The district commissioner said the IDPs were in desperate need of food and shelter. "They have very little food and most lack basic shelter material," he said, adding that the area had not received any significant assistance from "any quarters".

 

Since intense fighting between Ethiopian-backed government troops and insurgents began in February, at least 1,000 people have reportedly been killed and more than 600,000 displaced.

 

Meanwhile, Somalia's interim parliament on 9 January gave a vote of confidence to the new cabinet of Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein. Hussein dismissed his earlier cabinet on 16 December, just three weeks after its formation, in favour of a "small but effective cabinet".

 

The government spokesman told IRIN from the southwestern town of Baidao, the temporary seat of parliament, that the new cabinet would consist of 18 ministers and five deputy ministers, compared with the 73 ministers and their deputies in the previous government.