Hundreds flee fighting in southwest

Hundreds of families are fleeing their homes in the southwestern regions of Somalia for fear of renewed fighting, local sources told IRIN on Wednesday. The exodus follows two outbreaks of heavy fighting within a week between opposing militias in the town of Bardhere. The fighting, in which over 50 people were killed and many more wounded, occurred on 12 February and again on 18 February. It pitted forces of the Juba Valley Alliance, which supports the Transitional National Government (TNG), against those of the opposition Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC). Families were leaving Bardhere town and the surrounding villages to the east, which bore the brunt of the fighting, and were moving in response to reports of renewed fighting and a fear that "the fighting will go on for some time", Abdi Gesey, a Bardhere businessman, told IRIN. The two militias were reportedly receiving reinforcements and preparing to renew hostilities, he said. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that people were also leaving the town of Baidoa, about 200 km northwest of Mogadishu, for fear that the fighting might spread from Bardhere. "We have had reports of families coming from Baidoa to Buur Hakaba [about 80 km to the southeast of Baidoa] in the last two days," one source said. Attempts by IRIN to contact Baidoa have been unsuccessful due a continuing telecommunications blackout. The town has been cut off from the rest of Somalia and the world since Monday. According to a regional expert, if the fighting in Gedo Region is not contained quickly, "it could dramatically worsen an already precarious humanitarian situation, not only in Gedo but also in neighbouring Bakol and Bay regions". Somali political observers have predicted that the fighting in Gedo "will probably get worse before it gets better", due to "various political interests".