Thousands more flee Mogadishu as fighting continues, says UN
An additional 10,000 people have reportedly fled Somalia’s capital Mogadishu due to ongoing fighting which has claimed the lives of at least six people and injured some 50 others this week alone, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
An additional 10,000 people have reportedly fled Somalia’s capital Mogadishu due to ongoing fighting which has claimed the lives of at least six people and injured some 50 others this week alone, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The Office estimates that some 256,000 people have fled Mogadishu since October. Most of the internally displaced are being sheltered in camps on the Mogadishu-Afgooye road.
Somalia, which has lacked a functioning government since 1991, has been wracked by violence in recent months which has displaced around 1 million people and has caused some 3 million to flee the country as refugees.
“The situation in Somalia is dangerous and becoming more so each day,” the top UN envoy to the country, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, told the Security Council on Monday.
He urged the international community to draw up a road map towards lasting peace and stability in Somalia, warning that continuing with “business as usual” would have dire consequences for the country and the region.