From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Jun 05 2009 - 14:54:21 EDT
Mogadishu exodus swells, Islamists battle for town
Fri Jun 5, 2009 2:47pm GMT
By Abdi Sheikh
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Friday that 96,000 Somalis
had fled fighting in Mogadishu in the last month, while in central Somalia
rival Islamist groups fought for a town in battles that killed dozens.
Rebels from the militant al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam groups first wrested
control of Wabho town from pro-government moderate Islamists Ahlu Sunna
Waljamaca in a day of mortar and machine-gun exchanges that sent residents
fleeing, witnesses said.
"We have pounded mortars on the infidels and entered the town from all
sides. Wabho is now under our control," Hisbul Islam spokesman Sheikh Muse
Arale told Reuters.
Fighters spoke of dozens of dead, but it was impossible to verify exact
numbers. Central towns have been changing hands regularly between militants
and moderates in on-off fighting throughout the year.
Late in the day, Ahla Sunna claimed it had re-taken Wabho, and wounded
hardline Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. Leaders on both sides
spoke to Reuters by satellite phone, but other lines to the town were cut,
so there was no independent verification.
The exodus from Mogadishu since a flare-up in rebel-government fighting in
early May has added to the more than 1 million internal refugees in Somalia.
Aid agencies say Somalia now has one of the world's worst, and most
neglected, humanitarian crises.
Three million Somalis need urgent food aid.
A two-year insurgency, the latest manifestation of 19 years of conflict in
the Horn of Africa nation, has killed around 18,000 civilians, and unknown
numbers of fighters.
It has also drawn foreign jihadists into Somalia, enabled piracy to flourish
offshore, and unsettled the whole region, with East African neighbours on
high security alert.
In an update on the flows from Mogadishu, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said
about 35,000 of those displaced since the latest flare-up began on May 8
were still in the city, seeking shelter, because they had no means to
escape.
Another 26,000 had reached makeshift camps in the Afgoye area, about 30 km
(20 miles) southeast of Mogadishu.
"According to UNHCR's local partners in Somalia, some 2,000 people have
indicated that they plan to cross the border into Kenya. More than a
thousand said they are ready to risk their lives and make the perilous
journey with smugglers across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen," the agency said.
"Some 600 people told our local partners they were heading towards
Ethiopia."
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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