Monday, December 30, 2013
War-torn Somalia flew back home Monday some 130 citizens who had been working in troubled South Sudan, the latest of thousands of foreigners to flee violence in the world's youngest country.
Western nations including the United States and Britain flew in military aircraft to evacuate their citizens after fighting began in South Sudan two weeks ago.
Regional countries including Kenya and Uganda have also organised airlifts for their citizens, but the evacuation organised by Somalia challenges the basket case image the Horn of Africa nation has had for many years.
"This was the first batch of 335 Somali citizens who were stranded in South Sudan due to the conflict," Somali foreign ministry official Ali Abdi Ali told AFP.
Many had been trapped in Bor when rebels seized the town, before it was wrested back by government troops last week, he said, adding that Mogadishu's government was paying for the cost of the emergency airlift.
Mogadishu has long been viewed as one of the most dangerous cities in the world, but in recent months has seen gradual improvements as Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen.
Somalia has been riven by civil war since 1991, but the government which took power last year was the first to be given global recognition since the conflict began.
"We are very thankful to our government for their efforts to bring us home safely, we don't know what our situation would have been if this evacuation had not happened,"said Mohamed Adam, as he returned to Mogadishu.
"I was stuck inside a house in Bor and finding even basic food was very difficult."
Many Somalis work as traders or labourers in South Sudan.
International efforts have tried to stop violence in South Sudan from spiralling into all-out civil war.
Bloodshed has swept across the nation, with fierce battles reported in strategic oil-producing areas and grim reports of massacres, rapes and killings.