by Daniel Ooko
Monday, June 15, 2009

The UNHCR has called on warring parties in Somalia to guarantee the safety of civilians, with thousands of Somalis having escaped "some of the heaviest and bloodiest street battles" in the capital, Mogadishu, since violence erupted between government forces and opposition groups on 8 May.

According to the latest update from the Roberta Russo, a spokesman for the Nairobi-based UNHCR office, an estimated 122,000people have been displaced by the clashes as of Friday.

"The conflict between insurgent groups and government forces has displaced over 122,000 people, since the start of the latest fighting on May 7," Russo said in a statement sent to Xinhua.

The UN refugee agency said it is gravely concerned about the violence and the fact that it is further aggravating an already desperate humanitarian situation on the ground," he said.

The UNHCR said a hospital was forced to close temporarily to ensure the safety of its scarce medial staff while UNHCR's operation to feed 30,000 people on the south-eastern outskirts of the capital was halted due to fighting for the control of the main road from Mogadishu.

The fighting between the government forces and the opposition Al-Shabaab and Hezbul Islam groups in several north-west areas of Mogadishu has left more than 200 people dead over the past month, mostly civilians, with hundreds of injured in local hospitals.

UNHCR's Representative to Somalia Guillermo Bettocchi has also urged the rival forces to respect the rights of civilians.

"The suffering civilians are going through is unacceptable. All warring parties in this conflict should be reminded of their obligations under the international humanitarian and human rights law to protect civilians, to refrain from indiscriminate attacks on civilians and to limit their attacks to military targets," he said.

The majority of the displaced are women and children, who are fleeing with very few belongings and enduring extremely difficult circumstances. Women are particularly vulnerable.

There are reports of rape and sexual exploitation during their fleeing and in places of refuge. These risks are exacerbated by the limited humanitarian assistance available, the UN agency said.

A 21-year-old woman, carrying her baby in her arms after fleeing Mogadishu by bus, told staff from one of UNHCR's local partners that her husband had been killed in the latest fighting and she wanted to make her way across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen.

"I didn't give money to the bus driver, but he used my body," she alleged, adding "I will never come back to Somalia."

Reports received from local NGO partners supporting a hospital in Mogadishu's Dayniile neighbourhood indicated that of the 218 wounded people treated in that hospital, 81 were women and children under the age of 14, including a six-month old baby. Countless families have allegedly been separated due to the conflict.

According to UNHCR, the events of May have worsened a pattern of indiscriminate violence that has seen at least 34 schools temporarily occupied by armed groups since the beginning of the year, and at least six schools were raided or shelled in the last 12 months.

Reports also said that people desperate to flee are stuck in their homes for days without food or water, no access to basic services, waiting for a lull in the fighting to escape the city.

A hospital in the strategically important Yaaqshiid district of Mogadishu, fearing for the safety of its scarce medical staff, was forced to cease operations temporarily and thus limiting access to medical care for wounded civilians.

Due to the latest escalation, the UNHCR has been forced to put on hold the scheduled distribution of life-saving aid in the vicinity of a location called Kilometre 13, on the south-eastern outskirts of the Somali capital.

During this phase the UN refugee agency has hoped to provide humanitarian assistance to almost 30,000 people, but the distribution is halted due to fighting between opposition groups and government forces for the control of the main road from Mogadishu to the Afgooye district.