UN: 27,000 Fled Mogadishu Since June - AP

The Associated Press
Friday, August 3, 2007; 5:34 PM

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- An estimated 27,000 people have fled Somalia's violent capital since June, part of an exodus that has sent a fifth of Mogadishu's 2 million residents fleeing for safety, the U.N. said Friday.The city has seen little peace since December, when Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's government ousted a radical Islamic militia. Insurgents vowed to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war.The unrelenting violence has stopped thousands of people who have fled Mogadishu from returning home, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday. Only about 125,000 have returned, the U.N. said last month."Mothers are unable to buy food for their children and workers unable to make a living," the agency said.

Mortars slammed into homes Thursday, killing eight people, including a mother and her two daughters, witnesses said.Police spokesman Yusuf Osman Hussein blamed the attacks on remnants of an Islamic militia driven from Mogadishu in December by Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's fragile government. The militants have been waging insurgent attacks for months in an attempt to regain power.Eric Laroche, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, said the unrelenting violence is preventing the return of thousands of people who have fled to squalid camps on the outskirts of the capital.

Laroche spoke during an unannounced visit Thursday to the Somali capital.The majority of those fleeing the capital are from districts near the building hosting a national reconciliation conference aimed at helping the country heal the wounds of 16 years of conflict. The meeting was delayed several times due to violence and infighting, and has been the target of insurgent attacks since it opened July 18.Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other. The U.N.-backed government that formed in 2004 has struggled to assert its authority.Many of the people who have left the capital live in squalid refugee camps.