"One million" homeless in Somalia

This is from the BBC.
This conflict is a direct result of the US use of Ethiopian proxy troops to overthrow the Union of Islamic Courts. Ever since there has been conflict between Islamic insurgents and the provisional government in effect the Ethiopian invaders who prop up the government. There was some semblance of security during the reign of the Islamic Courts and it was supported by many because whatever its faults it was better than feuding warlords and the provisional govt. However, it was not acceptable to the US so it had to go.


'One million' homeless in Somalia

Some 600,000 have left Mogadishu this year
One million people are now living rough in Somalia, the UN refugee agency says.
The figure includes 60% of Mogadishu residents who have fled their homes - 200,000 in the past two weeks - leaving many districts empty, says UNHCR.

People have been forced out by renewed conflict between Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian-backed government forces.

Kenya's government has been strongly criticised for deporting 18 failed Somali asylum-seekers. "They are being sent to die," a rights worker said.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council says it will continue to plan for a peacekeeping mission to Somalia, despite the secretary-general's opposition.

Ban Ki-moon said earlier this month that it was too dangerous to send troops to the war-torn country.

He instead urged countries to help the existing African Union mission.

On Saturday, Islamist insurgents armed with machine guns and grenades attacked the AU base in Mogadishu. Only Uganda has sent troops to the AU force.

'Against the law'

UNHCR says those who have fled to the Afgooye area, 30km from Mogadishu, are living in desperate conditions.

They are using plastic bags and rags to patch up their flimsy mud and straw huts.


Uganda has some 1,700 soldiers in Somalia as part of the AU mission
UNHCR says landowners are charging them $1.5 a month for a tiny plot of land to erect their shelters.

The refugee agency says 600,000 people have fled Mogadishu this year - on top of 400,000 displaced by earlier rounds of fighting.

A Kenyan human rights group has strenuously condemned the deportation of 18 failed asylum-seekers back to Mogadishu.

Alamin Kimanthi, who heads the Muslim Human Rights Forum, said police forced the women and children into a plane destined to Mogadishu, despite their protests.

They are part of a group of 50, whose requests for refugee status were rejected in Uganda.

The other 32 are being held at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta airport.

"We condemn the decision to deport these people to Somalia because it is clear that they are just being sent to die," Mr Kimanthi told the BBC News website after visiting the airport.

"It is against the law and we call on the international community to act on this situation."

'Heart-breaking'

After discussing Mr Ban's report, the Security Council "underlined the need to continue to actively develop contingency plans for the possible deployment of a peacekeeping force as part of an enhanced UN integrated strategy in Somalia", said its president, Marty Natalegawa from Indonesia.

South Africa's UN ambassador Dumisani Kumalo said the situation in Somalia was "heart-breaking".

"The UN has to find a way to go in there," he said, according to the AP news agency.

"The [UN] Charter says maintain international peace and security everywhere," he said. "It doesn't say except in Somalia."

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991.

Violence has intensified this year after Ethiopia helped the government oust the Union of Islamic Courts last December.

In Mogadishu, Ethiopian and government troops conducted door-to-door searches for insurgents in the capital over the past week, sparking deadly clashes.

The United Nations says some 170,000 people fled the violence last week and hundreds of others have been injured in the crossfire.

Fighting rages in Mogadishu

This is hardly surprising. As long as the US is involved only through its proxies the Ethiopians it will be on the back pages of newspapers. There is no mention of African peacekeepers in this post. The government and Ethiopians and also the rebels I guess seem to have no compunction about using artillery in the city. The fighting will create another huge refugee problem.


Fighting in Mogadishu rages for 3rd day
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN - Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia --Fighting raged for a third day in the Somali capital Saturday as government troops and their Ethiopian allies continued a major offensive to quash a growing insurgency by Islamic militants.

Artillery fire and mortar shells rained down on the capital, sending residents fleeing some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu since the early 1990s.

On Friday, insurgents shot an Ethiopian helicopter gunship out of the sky and mortar shells slammed into a hospital, leaving corpses piled in the streets and wounding hundreds of civilians.

According to an official count, 30 people have been killed since the offensive started Thursday. But the fighting was so severe and widespread in Mogadishu that bodies were not being picked up or even tallied, and residents said hundreds more were believed dead across the city of 1 million people.

The insurgents are linked to the Council of Islamic Courts, which was driven from power in December by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers, accompanied by U.S. special forces.

Insurgents were firing mortars from residential areas of the city, and Ethiopian troops responded with barrages of heavy artillery. The attacks occurred across the flat seaside capital, and huge plumes of smoke rose into the air.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said dozens of people have been killed since Thursday and more than 220 wounded, most of them civilians with bullet, grenade and other shrapnel wounds.

"The population of Mogadishu is caught up in the worst fighting in more than 15 years," the agency said.

The U.N.'s refugee agency said 58,000 people have fled violence in the Somali capital since the beginning of February.

Islamic militants - who now dominate the insurgency - stockpiled thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition during the six months they controlled Mogadishu. The insurgency will likely last until that stockpile is depleted, or key leaders are killed.

The militants have long rejected any secular government and have sworn to fight until Somalia becomes an Islamic emirate. Clan elders have tried to negotiate several cease-fires, but cannot control the young insurgents.

On Friday, an Associated Press reporter saw an anti-aircraft missile hit an Ethiopian helicopter that had been bombing insurgent positions.

Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another.

A U.N. peacekeeping operation in the 1990s saw clashes between foreign troops and Somali fighters, including the notorious downings of two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters in 1993 - which was followed by a firefight that killed some 300 Somalis in 12 hours. The U.S. withdrew from Somalia in 1994, and that was followed a year later by the departure of U.N. peacekeepers.

A national government was established in 2004 but has failed to assert any real control. The administration, with crucial support from Ethiopian troops, toppled the Council of Islamic Courts in December, but insurgents with links to the group have staged attacks nearly every day.

The United States has accused the Islamic courts of having ties to al-Qaida.

AP writer Salad Duhul in Mogadishu contributed to this report.