Somalis Flee Fighting Near Afgooye Corridor

February 17, 2012

United Nations personnel look on as a worker serves food at a camp in Hodan district in Mogadishu, January 19, 2012

In Somalia, thousands of already displaced people are fleeing new fighting northwest of Mogadishu. Many are heading for the capital where humanitarian agencies are setting up emergency relief operations.

U.N. refugee agency spokesman Andy Needham said more than 7,000 Somalis have left the Afgooye corridor in the last two weeks, more than 5,000 of them in the past few days.

The Afgooye corridor is the largest single concentration of internally displaced people in the world. There are over 400,000 people along a 40 kilometer stretch of road, which snakes out from Mogadishu head eastwards.

It’s where many Somalis from Mogadishu went when intense fighting in the city was a daily occurrence in recent years.

Advanced warning

Needham said civilians did receive a warning of possible violence from the Transitional Federal Government and the African Union mission in Somalia.

“Well, basically in the last number of days, the TFG and AMISOM forces gave an indication to residents within Afgooye corridor that there may be increased military activity in the area. Basically advising people – perhaps for their own safety – to move,” he said.

The UNHCR and other aid agencies are gearing up operations in Mogadishu.