Sunday May 06, 2007
Cheng who returned to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, after a four-day tour of Baidoa and Galkayo, in south-central Somalia, said she was "shocked by the appalling living conditions of people displaced by recent heavy fighting in Mogadishu."
In a press a statement signed by associate Information Officer Catherine Weibel, UNCHR said that, in Baidoa, some 230 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu, Cheng-Hopkins reported having come face to face with 17,000 newly displaced people who were living extreme conditions.
The statement said: "The new arrivals live in flimsy shelters made of fabric wrapped around sticks. Some families have not been able to find enough material to cover the entire shelter, and the lack of plastic sheeting is leaving them exposed to heavy rains at night."
Since the beginning of February some 365,000 people have fled Mogadishu.
Although a few are slowly returning to the city, most say they want to stay where they are for a few weeks to see how the security situation develops.
Intense fighting witnessed in the past one month was this week said to have gradually subsided, giving way to relative peace, which had created a safe corridor for the 1,700 African Union peacekeepers deployed in the country to start patrolling Mogadishu streets.
Hitherto, the AU peacekeepers had been restricted to guarding the presidential palace and the airport.
However, refugees told UNHCR officials that the situation in the country was volatile to allow them to return to their homes.
"They (IDPs) fear fighting might break out again and some have had their houses destroyed. Others cannot afford the cost of transportation back to the capital. People who lived in settlements inside former government buildings in Mogadishu are also afraid they might not be allowed to settle back there by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG)," the UNHCR said.
It said it had set a budget of US$5.7 million for Somalia, which is likely to soar following the recent exodus of people from Mogadishu.
Source: Angola Press, May 06, 2007