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ReliefWeb » Document » Somalia violence sparks mass exodus from capital

MOGADISHU, June 20, 2009 (AFP) - Thousands of residents fled the Somali capital Saturday, many on foot or perched on donkey carts, after fierce clashes between government troops and Islamist rebels in the city's north.



The exodus was the heaviest since the UN-backed fragile government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed took office five months ago, an AFP correspondent said.

Fighting broke out Friday afternoon in hitherto unaffected northern district of Karan in which a lawmaker, Mohamed Husein Addow, was killed: the third senior official to be killed in as many days.

Residents said the violence that rocked Karan on Friday was unprecendented.

With children in trail and a few paltry belongings, residents abandoned their homes for Afgooye, an uncontested but Islamist controlled area on the southern outskirts of the capital.

"I have never fled my house since the fall of (ex-president) Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, but today I am among the thousands who are desperately leaving their beloved homes," lamented Husein Sheikh Barre.

Sitting on the back of an open truck with his wife and six children, the 53-year-old added: "Our neighbourhood was relatively calm, but mortars are falling everywhere and gunfire is everywhere. I don't think anyone will remain in Karan".

Many of the displaced fled to Afgooye corridor, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of the capital and where many sleep in the open by the roadside. Aid agencies say at least 400,000 displaced are living rough there.

"This is the worst moment of our lives. I don't need to describe the conditions in Karan, just look at me," said Mohamed Ali Osman, 23, who had his 18-month daughter strapped on his back and carried a heavy sack of corn flour on his head as he walked out of the city.

"My wife and three other children fled yesterday, but I was trapped indoors with my daughter here," he added.

Around 300 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the six-week-old battle and more than 125,000 displaced, according to UN figures and casualty tolls compiled by AFP.

Lawmaker Addow was reportedly captured and executed by gunmen on Friday. The previous day, Mogadishu's top police commander was also killed in a fierce battle in the capital. The day before, a minister died in a suicide bombing.

The drive against Sharif's administration has been spearheaded by the hardline Shebab armed group and the more political Hezb al-Islam (Party of Islam) of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former Sharif ally.

Aweys and the Shebab, who were among the main targets of Ethiopia's 2006 military invasion, have refused to join peace efforts despite Ethiopia's January pullout.

They argue that the African Union's 4,300 Ugandan and Burundian peacekepeers are an occupation force bent on imposing Christianity in Somalia.