UN: Number of displaced Somalis hits 1 million

Nov 20, 2007, 13:19 GMT

Nairobi/Mogadishu - Some 1 million Somalis are now internally displaced, after recent violent clashes spiked the number by sending 200,000 people fleeing their homes in the last two weeks alone, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said Tuesday.

Some 600,000 people have poured out of the capital Mogadishu since the transitional government ousted a popular Islamist group at the New Year, sparking a bloody insurgency that has killed hundreds and is responsible for the exodus.

Another 400,000 people have been displaced since civil war broke out in 1991.

UNHCR said the displaced, most of them living in makeshift camps some 30 kilometres outside the capital, faced 'dire' living conditions.

'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 world body said.

The biggest concerns amongst the displaced in Afgoye, just outside Mogadishu, is food and health care, with the one hospital and mobile clinics run by aid agencies unable to meet the growing needs.

While most Somalis said they feel safe in Afgoye, security is becoming more of a concern, after an explosion on Sunday killed six people, UNHCR said.

The fighting between Ethiopian-backed government troops and insurgents has mostly been limited to Mogadishu, with sporadic incidents in other areas of the Horn of Africa country.

Somalia was plunged into anarchy after the 1991 toppling of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre by warlords and a succession of transitional government has been unable to restore effective rule to the country.

More than 100,000 Somalis live in refugee camps across the border in Kenya.