Thousands fleeing southwestern towns

Thousands of people have fled, or are fleeing, their homes in the Gedo region of southwestern Somalia because of fighting between rival groups, local sources told IRIN on Thursday.

They have been streaming out of the border towns of Bulo Hawa, and Lugh, despite the onset of the main Gu season rains.

According to the sources, the fighting is between an alliance of the Marehan sub-clans of Rer Hasan, Hawarsame and Habar Ya'qub, which are supported by the opposition Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC), and other Marehan sub-clans sympathetic to the Transitional National Government (TNG). The Marehan clan dominates the Gedo region.

Scores of people have been killed and many more wounded in the fighting, which flared up between the two groups in late March and reportedly displaced thousands of people, said Alidhuh Mahmud, head of the social affairs committee of Bardhere town in Gedo Region, and a member of the regional authority. "At least 3,000 families have been displaced, most of them from Bulo Hawa," he added. He said many of the displaced had crossed the border into the northeastern Kenyan town of Mandera. "Many others are scattered across the region," he said.

Alidhuh expressed concern not only at the plight of the Mandera refugees but also the displaced within Gedo, "who do not have shelter, food and medical assistance". "They are in urgent need of assistance," he stressed.

Humanitarian sources told IRIN at least 10,000 refugees had arrived in Mandera over the past few weeks due the conflict. Una MacAskill, director of the Gedo Health Consortium, said her group had sent emergency medical supplies to Lugh and was assisting people in Bulo Hawo who needed medical attention. "Insecurity in the area is so acute that it is difficult to plan assistance and get it in at this time," she said.

Local sources told IRIN that landmines were complicating the situation. The laying of landmines in the area had effectively cut off Bulo Hawa and Lugh from other centres in Somalia. According to Alidhuh, landmines had claimed 22 lives over the past three weeks.

Mediation efforts by area elders were in progress, one local source said. "Some elders are meeting in both Kenya and Somalia to discuss ways of resolving the conflict," he said. He warned that the warring sides "are mobilising for a major offensive".

Humanitarian sources also warned that the fighting in Gedo Region "could dramatically worsen an already precarious humanitarian situation, not only in Gedo but also in neighbouring Bakol and Bay regions and the Juba Valley".