36 000 flee Somali violence
30/10/2007 15:12  - (SA)  

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Geneva - Violence in the Somali capital has driven about 36 000 people from their homes, adding to the tens of thousands who fled Mogadishu earlier this year, says the United Nations refugee agency.

Jennifer Pagonis, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said hundreds more families around the city's main market were preparing to flee the capital on Tuesday, loading trucks, buses and donkey carts with their belongings.

She said: "They're really rather confused about where to go: whether to stay, whether to leave the city entirely or whether to relocate to another part of the city."

The city had seen little peace since last December, after Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's government ousted a radical Islamic militia. Insurgents vowed to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war.

Bomb explosion claims 5

Pagonis said: "According to some accounts, residents had been told by city officials to vacate the four districts close to the market, as security operations were going to take place."

Many of the people said they feared that the latest fighting - which aid workers said was the worst in months - could grow into major battles in the capital, she added.

She added that residents also lost their source of income after the Bakara market, the city's main trading point, was closed over the weekend. A bomb explosion at the market killed at least five Somalis on October 05.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said most of the Somalis leaving the capital were heading to the town of Afgoye, about 30km west of Mogadishu, where about 100 000 people who were driven from their homes earlier this year already lived.

According to the UN, about 1.5 million Somalis needed food aid and protection - 50% more that at the start of the year - because of droughts, continuing internal displacement and a potential cholera epidemic.

Somalia had not had a functioning government since 1991, after rival warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other.

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