Exodus continues as IDPs surpass one million

Despite a lull in fighting in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, hundreds of families are still fleeing the city, joining what the UN has estimated to be one million displaced people (IDPs).

"Many families are leaving because they don’t believe the current break in the fighting will last," a civil society source in Mogadishu, who requested anonymity, told IRIN on 21 November.

Sporadic fighting between government forces and insurgents has been going on in Mogadishu since Ethiopian troops arrived in the country in December 2006 to help the country's Transitional Federal Government drive out the Union of Islamic Courts, which had seized control of much of the south of the country, including the capital city.

The civil society source said the current exodus was also being felt in neighbourhoods that had, so far, escaped much of the violence in the city.

"Life in Mogadishu is becoming impossible. There’s nothing to do because of the security situation," the source said. "People are not able to go anywhere and they can’t make a living. So, anyone who can leave is doing so."

The source said people were not only heading to regions close to Mogadishu, but also to the north of the country.

"Many families are going as far as Galgadud and Mudug. We even have reports of displaced families in Puntland and Somaliland," he added.

A local journalist told IRIN that Mogadishu had been quiet for a couple of days.

"There has been no fighting, no explosions in the last two days," he said. "We are hoping it will last but not many believe that it will."

Jowahir Ilmi, the coordinator of six IDP camps, housing 4,885 families (about 29,000 people) in the Arbiska area near Afgoye, 30km south of Mogadishu, said IDPs were still arriving in the area.

"It has been like this every day over the last three weeks," she said. “The IDPs are in desperate need of many things, but the priority now is shelter material."

"The rains have begun and most of the displaced have no shelter from it," she added.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the total number of displaced people has reached a "staggering" one million.

In a statement issued on 20 November, UNHCR said: “Some 600,000 people are believed to have fled Mogadishu since February - nearly 200,000 of them in the past two weeks alone, leaving entire neighbourhoods in the volatile capital empty."

Another 400,000 fled their homes in past violence, UNHCR added.

ah/sr