- Title: SOMALIA: Thousands flee fighting surrounding peace conference in Mogadishu
- Date: 24th July 2007
- Summary: (W3) CARBISKA, SOMALIA (JULY 24, 2007) (REUTERS) WOMAN TAKING FOOD FROM BARREL AND POURING IT INTO A BOWL
- Embargoed: 8th August 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Somalia
- Country: Somalia
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA2OI6KMVB4IQSTFJN87XCVIRI2
- Story Text: Security in Mogadishu has worsened since peace talks started a week ago and, for the first time since early June, more people have left the Somali capital than returned, the United Nations said on Monday (July 23).
Reconciling clan rivalries is a key aim of the National Reconciliation Conference taking place in the capital, which the interim government hopes will bolster its legitimacy and win it the support it needs to bring peace among Somalia's myriad factions.
But the reconciliation meeting which opened in Mogadishu on July 15 has been marred by mortar bomb attacks.
Somali government forces and allied Ethiopian troops have been a target of regular attacks in the Bakara market, which is home to one of the world's biggest open-air weapons markets and is suspected of being a hideout for insurgents.
Mogadishu residents who found it safe to stay close to the Ethiopian and government soldiers say they are being caught up in the attacks and have left for towns on the outskirts of the city.
"We were staying close to the Ethiopian troops but when they would be attacked, it was bringing problems to us," said Ali Mohamed Hayow, a blind man who has fled Mogadishu.
The U.N. statement also said that security in Mogadishu deteriorated with the start of the National Reconciliation Conference.
"I fled from Mogadishu two days before the opening of the reconciliation conference because people want to attack the conference and we live very close to the hall where the conference is taking place," said Halima Ali Warsame, another displaced person.
The U.N. said more than 10,000 people fled Mogadishu last week. Since government troops began securing the city at the start of June, some 21,000 people have left Mogadishu and around 20,000 have returned. It is estimated that 400,000 people have been internally displaced in 2007 alone.
"I don't think they want to go back to Mogadishu. Every day new people arrive fleeing from the violence there," said Jawahir Ahmed Elmi, who has opened up her house to shelter refugees.
At the end of 2006, Somali forces backed by Ethiopia's military routed Islamist troops in a two-week war in the country which has been in chaos since 1991 when it became a patchwork of feuding warlords fighting over who would take over from ousted dictator Siad Barre.
But persistent attacks blamed on Islamist hard-liners have kept up the pressure on the interim government, which has urged the United Nations to send peacekeepers to reinforce an African Union force.
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