October 07, 2008	Tuesday	Shawwal 7, 1429

NAIROBI, Oct 6: Violence in Mogadishu in recent weeks has displaced some 37,000 people, swelling an internal refugee population of 1.1 million in Somalia, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said on Monday.

Some 52 NGOs signed a statement expressing concern about the “devastating humanitarian crisis” and “horrendous” violence in Somalia, where Islamist insurgents are battling the government and its Ethiopian military backers.

Aid-workers say the world is shrugging its shoulders at yet more suffering in Somalia, which has been mired in civil conflict since the 1991 fall of a dictator.

“Nearly half of Somalia’s population, or 3.25 million people, are now in need of emergency aid.

“This is a 77 per cent increase since the beginning of 2008,” the NGOs said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

“This number has increased dramatically over the past year due to the destructive combination of extreme insecurity, drought and record-high food prices. The situation is expected to deteriorate further with ordinary Somalis bearing the brunt.”

UN-led efforts to broker peace have not brought any lessening of violence “that continues to have a horrendous impact on civilians”, they said.

“In the last few weeks, renewed shelling in Mogadishu has displaced approximately 37,000 civilians from their homes.

“Over the past nine months, 870,000 have fled for their lives. A total of 1.1 million people are currently displaced in Somalia today.”

The NGOs criticised all parties in the Somali conflict for indiscriminate and disproportional use of force.

They noted that attacks on aid workers were hurting humanitarian efforts.

“This year alone 24 aid workers, of which 20 are Somali nationals, have been killed whilst carrying out their work. The whereabouts of another ten are unknown.

“There have been 111 reported security incidents directly targeting aid agencies.”

Dangers to aid-workers had left south and central Somalia almost entirely off limits to international staff of relief agencies, the NGOs said.

“The international community has completely failed Somali civilians. We call on the international community to make the protection of Somali civilians a top priority now,” they said.—Reuters