1 million.

[RedSea]

homes -UN

MOGADISHU, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The number of Somalis uprooted by fighting in their own country has hit a "staggering" one million, the United Nations' refugee agency said on Tuesday.

 

UNHCR said 600,000 people were believed to have fled Somalia's lawless capital Mogadishu since February, when clashes pitting allied Somali-Ethiopian troops against suspected Islamist insurgents started to escalate.

 

Nearly 200,000 people have streamed out of Mogadishu in the past two weeks alone, emptying entire neighbourhoods, UNHCR said in a statement.

 

The numbers of displaced persons this year are in addition to 400,000 forced to flee their homes because of previous fighting.

 

The Horn of Africa country has been in a state of anarchy since warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

 

The latest conflict flared when Islamist leaders took control of various towns in southern Somalia last year before being ousted in January by government soldiers and their Ethiopian allies.

 

The interim government has since faced an Islamist insurgency, featuring roadside bombings and political killings, that has all but thwarted its attempts to restore central rule.

 

Civilians typically bear the brunt of the violence.

 

UNHCR said the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in more than 60 makeshift settlements along the 30 km (20 miles) stretch of road linking Mogadishu to Afgoye had soared to nearly 200,000 -- a 50 percent increase in the past two weeks.

 

"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," UNHCR said.

 

"Although IDPs express confidence in security in the Afgoye area, we are increasingly worried about security incidents there in the last several days," it said.

 

UNHCR said an aid worker was killed on Friday after she was hit by a stray bullet while distributing supplies. On Sunday, an explosion in Afgoye town killed six people, it added. (Writing by Katie Nguyen; Editing by Giles Elgood)

 

SOURCE: Reuters, November 20, 2007

[RedSea]

That stup1d old man had the guts to say Somalia was its best situation in last 17 years.

 

They have forced more than half of the capital's people out of their homes, so who do they then plan to govern?

[Faarax-Brawn]

Thats 1MILLION less looters,warlords and watnots in Mog.

 

Hooray! Now,the wonderful TFG can rule the ruins and the dead corps! :mad: :mad:

 

May Allah have mercy on the people....

[RedSea]

Amin..talow ma ciiday utalin doonan markaa hadii ay dadkii ay laayeen ama se ay barakiciyeen?

[Seekknowledge]

History repeats itself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nephissa]

Originally posted by Red Sea:

talow ma ciiday utalin doonan markaa hadii ay dadkii ay laayeen ama se ay barakiciyeen?

Now that the $hit has hit the fan, they just sit and smell it.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

laba million iska deh aslong as we are making numbers up. Ask your self what the population of mogadishu before making false number up people!

[rudy-Diiriye]

xamar was 3 million! prior to uncle's wild party.

[N.O.R.F]

I suppose all TFG fans will cry that this is all false even those all media outlets are reporting this with information from UNHCR!!!

 

Somali conflict has displaced a million: UNHCR

 

by Bogonko Bosire

Tue Nov 20, 3:52 PM ET

 

NAIROBI (AFP) - Some 600,000 people have fled the war-riven Somali capital since February, bringing the total number of people displaced inside the country to a "staggering one million," the UNHCR said Tuesday.

 

Nearly 200,000 people fled Mogadishu in recent weeks amid some of the heaviest fighting between the joint Ethiopian and Somali government forces and Islamist-led rebels, the UN refugee agency said.

 

Government troops continued to patrol Mogadishu, as relative stability returned days after dozens of people were killed and thousands wounded, witnesses said.

 

"Sixty percent of the population or some 600,000 people are believed to have fled from ... Mogadishu since February this year," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.

 

"The numbers of displaced this year are in addition to some 400,000 people displaced by previous fighting," said the statement.

 

"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 statement added.

 

An estimated 200,000 people were living rough in squalid camps along the road to Afgooye, 30 kilometres (18 miles) west of Mogadishu -- a 50 percent increase over the past two weeks, the UNHCR said.

 

Some of those sheltering there had had to give up some the aid they had received to gatekeepers, individuals who act as self-proclaimed managers in some of the settlements, the statement said.

 

They were also being charged for the use of the latrines which were often too few for the numbers there, it added.

 

Aid workers were delivering supplies in Afgooye, but complained that fighting was preventing them from accessing civilians trapped in Mogadishu.

 

"It is impossible to estimate the number of people remaining in Mogadishu," said Catherine Weibel, the agency's spokeswoman for Somalia.

 

A statement issued by the donor-funded Food Security Analysis Unit said child malnutrition was rising in the Shabelle region -- Somalia's breadbasket.

 

The region had suffered the worst crop in 13 years, leaving nearly a million people there on the edge of starvation.

 

At least 45,000 children under five were acutely malnourished, of whom nearly 8,500 were severely malnourished and in desperate need of specialist care, the FSAU added.

 

"Humanitarian assistance for the displaced populations, host communities and rural populations in crisis in the Shabelle region is urgently needed to avert a slide into a humanitarian crisis of increased magnitude," it said.

 

The UN and other independent aid workers warn that the crisis in Somalia is the worst in Africa, a dubious distinction in a continent where catastrophes are common.

 

The transitional government, riven by in-fighting, has been unable to exert control across the nation and some provinces have declared independence.

 

The bloody clan bickering and power struggles that intensified after the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre have undermined numerous bids to stabilise Somalia.

source

[Xidigo]

Originally posted by Seekknowledge:

History repeats itself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What do you mean?

[Fabregas]

He mans a Qabil got cleansed in the early 90s and the same is happening today. Sadly, that is what some peoples imgagination conjures up at the sight of starving, dying and malnourished innoncent Somalis,ie he belongs to reer Hebel and reer Hebel killed this clan in 1940 codh-codh.......

[Juje]

Originally posted by GJ:

He mans a Qabil got cleansed in the early 90s and the same is happening today. Sadly, that is what some peoples imgagination conjures up at the sight of starving, dying and malnourished innoncent Somalis,ie he belongs to reer Hebel and reer Hebel killed this clan in 1940 codh-codh.......

He is not alone in that thinking.

[NASSIR]

So Juje, who is to blame in this mass exodus? People are fleeing because they do not want to be used as a shield or be caught in the cross fire.

 

It is imperative that the insurgents renounce violence or stop using the population as human shield. Look at Baidabo. The TFG has been in that city ever since it came out of the exile that it was in. The city is peaceful ever since.

 

 

Geel Jire, I don't think majority of the people who were uprooted from Mogadisho conjure up these images to justify the population exodus of Mogadisho. This unfortunate predicament is the outcome of the two groups that are in conflict. It is not in their making , nor is there a Somali clan engaged in this perceived "pogrom".

 

Let us avoid proposing demented causes or ill-driven, tribalistic cause for this war.

[Paragon]

1 Million homeless now

 

This is Channel4's Report on Mogadishu tonight

[NASSIR]

^May Allah help them out. IA, they will get support from both inside and outside the country.