UN Says 90,000 Fled Somalia After Latest Fighting
By VOA News
01 November 2007
The U.N. refugee agency says intense fighting in Somalia's capital in recent days has forced nearly 90,000 people to flee the city.
In a statement Wednesday, officials with the U.N High Commissioner for Refugees said the fighting between Ethiopian troops in support of the Somali government and insurgents was some of the worst in Mogadishu in months.
The officials report the most intense fighting took place Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The city was quieter Wednesday.
The U.N. says the fighting that began earlier this year has driven more than 400,000 people from Mogadishu.
They say more than half the people who fled Mogadishu since Saturday have settled on the road between the capital and the city of Afgooye, 30 kilometers away.
The UNHCR says it has delivered aid to 78,000 people in Afgooye so far this year.
Islamists began an insurgency in January that has killed thousands in Mogadishu. Ethiopia sent troops to Somalia last year to help the Somali interim government oust the Islamist militants who were threatening to take control of the country.
Somali opposition leaders based in Eritrea have vowed to fight until Ethiopian troops are off Somali soil.
Somalia has not had a stable central government since 1991.
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