Despite a claim in earlier this year by the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to have ousted insurgents in Somalia, a report by the united nations high commission for refugees estimates about 27 thousand people have fled the capital of Mogadischu since the beginning of June because of renewed violence.
The report of the 400 thousand civilians who fled between February and may, some 125 thousand have returned to the city. Catherine Weibel information officer for the UNHCR Somalia recently returned to her base in Nairobi, Kenya. From there she spoke with VOA’s Akwei Thompson.
Weibel said there are no organized camps for those fleeing the city and other parts of the country “they tend together and build some small huts, what we call settlements.”
Weibel said the UNHCR has counted about about 28,000 people who have fled since June. Most of them, she said, have gone to the neighboring province of Shabelles and built small huts along the road stretching between Mogadischu and Agoye about 30 kilometers away.
She said many of the people who have fled are women with their children with no male relatives to protect them.