By Sahal Abdulle
Thursday, April 05, 2007

The Ugandan contingent of two armored personnel carriers, a Humvee and two water trucks headed for Lafole, an impromptu refugee camp 20 km (12 miles) south of a city where a truce held for a fourth day after the bloodiest fighting in 15 years.

The constant gun battles peaked with a four-day offensive by Somali government and Ethiopian troops against an alliance of insurgents and tribesmen who had been attacking them for months.

The Ugandans have come into Somalia after the government and Ethiopia defeated Islamist militants.

The fighting leveled neighborhoods with indiscriminate fire that drew widespread condemnation and demands for a ceasefire to end bloodshed that killed at least 400 people.

It also accelerated an exodus of what the United Nations says is 124,000 refugees since February.

As they Ugandans drove south, they passed a steady column of cars full of refugees and the less fortunate walking through the blazing sun or riding donkey carts, a Reuters reporter saw.

The scope of the crisis which aid agencies warn could spark further clashes over scarce and overstrained resources was evident on the square kilometer of Dr. Howo Abdi's 100-bed maternity hospital.

Huts made of plastic or iron sheets covered every square inch of the scrubland, with families crammed inside.

STOPPED COUNTING

Beyond the hospital grounds were throngs of at least a thousand families in scenes Abdi said she had not seen since the 1991 civil war that toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and unleashed anarchy.

"The last two weeks, the scene is almost looking the same and we are receiving large numbers," she told Reuters.

At last count, there are 460 families, but she said she had stopped counting days ago.

"This is a place of hope in a battle zone. I don't ask people what clan they are, if they are Somali, I give them a piece of my land."

But land will not be enough, she said, as diarrhea had stricken dozens who were relieving themselves around the grounds, increasing the risk of an epidemic and fast draining her supplies of rehydrating fluids.

One mother said her two young children would have died were it not for the donated fluid.

"If there was no hospital or this doctor, our kids would have died because we could not afford the solution," said Halima, who declined to give her last name.

Abdi said medicine and temporary shelter needed to be sent urgently.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday it had delivered 11 metric tons of medicines, drugs, surgical equipment to three Mogadishu hospitals.

It also delivered 215,000 liters of water to about 43,000 people in refugee-flooded areas in the Lower and Upper Shabelle, and the south Galgadud region.

Somalia, now on its 14th attempt at a central government since 1991, is one of the most difficult places in the world to deliver humanitarian relief as aid workers constantly face attack or extortion by the nation's thousands of gunmen.

(Additional reporting by Richard Waddington in Geneva)

Source: Reuters, April 05, 2007

hassancosobleh @ 4/6/2007 4:21 AM EST  THE FAKE WADAADO HAS SUNK SOMALIS SO LOW. NYEBO SEBO FOLKS ARE DISTRIBUTING WATER TO SOMALIS, WHAT A SHAME.

Alik22 @ 4/5/2007 9:56 PM EST  Sad, somalis will never cease to be refugess until judgment day arrives, there are level of refugees and the fortunate of refugees are the once like myself in U.S.A. but we all refugees.

walalo @ 4/5/2007 8:44 PM EST  Webale 'Nyo sebo! It a shameful situation when the somali people recieve help that they would otherwise give to other nations were it not for these evil warlords and so called fake wadaado.

marshaale @ 4/5/2007 8:31 PM EST  wax la yiraahdo wadaado iyo maxkamado meeshaan ma joogin mana jirin waxa ay ahaayeen koox yaroo somali ah oo is aruursatay kuna heshiisay in ay gumaadaan shacabka maatada ah iyo kuwa aan kasoo jeedin beelihii hubeesnaa ee aan isdifaaci karin, waxay karbaash u qaateen iyo qisaasid si ay dadka u argagixiyaan beelaha laga tirada badan yahay ayagoo gacmaha ka laabtay beelaha waaween ee caasumada ka amar taakleenayey, waxay ahaayeen tuugo soo goosatay xargaha ilaahay, waxay qandaraas ah umada ku haya argagax kasoo qaateen shabakada dhiig qubida iyo kala eryida shacabka ee alqacida, waxay la soo boodaan markay umada xasuuqaan ALAAHU AKBAR oo ay rabaan in dadku u arko kuwo xaq u diririya, waa dayuusiin aan laheen wax la yiraahdo naxariis oo beentana uga daadato sidii tusbax afka la jaray. kuma soo noqonayaan somaliya mardanbe waxay aduunka iyo aakhiraba ku seegeen waa beenta iyo munaafiqnimada ay diinteena suuban ka abuurteen. waxay caruurta bareen in ay naftooda ku gumaadaan isqarxin si ay danahooda gaar ahaaneed u fushadaan, waxay dadka caqliga daciifka leh ka dhaadhiceey hadaad JANADA rabto xasuuq walaalahaaga somaliyeed, karbaash, ka dhac xoolahooda, ka xir ganacsigooda, u xukun hab dhaqankii lagu yaqaanay TALIBAANKII laga eryey afgaanistaan, laakiin waxaa si sharaf leh u hor istaagay ayaga iyo taageerayaashooda caqliga daciifka ah leh madaxdeena QARANKA oo taqaan sida loola tacaalo BURCAD qandaraas iyo shilimaad kasoo gurata argixisada caalamka ee alqacida.

hytham.somali @ 4/5/2007 3:00 PM EST  Thanks Uganda maygod bless your country and ppl