As fighting continues in Mogadishu, a new influx of people who escaped the city's deadly battles have reached the refugee camps of Elasha Biyaha and Lafoole just outside the capital city, where an estimated 2 million internally displaced Somalis live.
Lorries and minibuses loaded with furniture, utensils and children have been seen on the main roads heading out of Mogadishu after days of fighting and deadly artillery shelling in the residential neighborhoods.
Asha Abdi and her five children were taking refuge under a big tree at the Lafoole IDP camp near the town of Afgoye, about 19 miles southwest of Mogadishu.
“Fortunately, we reached here safe. But we left our belongings in home back of Mogadishu,” she told All Headline News.
Looking haggard and tired along with her five children, Abdi said her husband was killed by Ethiopian troops in 2007.
“We depend on our new neighbors’ help,” Abdi said, with tears gushing from her eyes. “We have nothing; we are calling on international relief agencies and rich, generous Somalis to assist us as soon as possible.”
Her call comes as the Al Queda-linked group Al Shabaab has banned more than 20 international aid agencies from operating southern and central Somalia.
Last month, Al Shabaab ordered three international aid agencies--World Vision, Adventist Development and Relief Agency and Diakonia--to stop serving in Somalia, claiming they are "actively propagating Christianity" in the Horn of Africa country. Other aid organizations were warned against undertaking their work.
However, Abdi is not alone in her plight. Almost 23,000 civilians have fled from the restive Somali capital since the escalation in violence broke out late August between Islamist fighters and Somali government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers, according the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees.
Almost 2 million people have been at the Elasha camps for the past three years. They all fled after an Islamist-led insurgency against Ethiopia that started in 2007
Source: www.allheadlinenews.com
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