Zanzibari refugees in Mogadishu

Over 100 refugees from Zanzibar arrived in Mogadishu on 6 October, a senior official of the Transitional National Government (TNG) confirmed to IRIN on Monday. The 103 refugees included three children and two women, the TNG director of information, Abdirahman Dinari, said. Volunteers from Muslim organisations in Mogadishu are trying to assist the refugees, "but don't have much to offer", a Mogadishu resident, Muhammad Ali, told IRIN. The refugees had reportedly come from refugee camps in Kenya, by road, Dinari said. He added that the TNG had informed UN agencies of the presence of the refugees.

Paul Stromberg, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Nairobi, told IRIN that the agency was aware of the refugees' presence in Mogadishu, but said the agency could not help them. "We don't have the facilities to aid them there," he said. It is not clear why the Zanzibaris chose to leave Kenya to go to Somalia. Muhammad Ali said they had come "to a place even poorer their own". He said the refugees had now been provided with temporary housing in the city.