Somali Civilians Murdered, Raped, As Conflict Worsens, UN Says
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Nairobi, April 13, 2007 – Hundreds of Somali civilians have been killed or raped in the past month with fighting in the Horn of Africa nation at its heaviest since the outbreak of civil war more than a decade ago, the United Nations said.
More than 200,000 residents have fled the capital, Mogadishu, since February and a truce signed earlier this month between government forces and clan militiamen has already collapsed, John Holmes, the UN's top humanitarian affairs official, said yesterday.
``Although it seemed that there was some hope, it took only days for the truce to be broken and the suffering of the population to be on the rise again,'' he said in a statement.
Violence in the capital has increased since the UN-backed interim government, aided by troops from neighboring Ethiopia, ousted the Union of Islamic Courts militia from southern and central Somalia in January. The Islamists, which the U.S. says are linked with al-Qaeda, responded with guerrilla-style attacks on government troops, aided by Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the past month and more than 1,000 wounded by mortar rounds and fighting in residential areas of Mogadishu, the UN said.
Civilians fleeing the capital have been raped, robbed, harassed and threatened and relief efforts have been hampered by the fighting, the UN said.
The country has been wracked by inter-clan fighting and without a functioning administration since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre.
The interim government, backed by Ethiopian troops, is trying to bring the nation of 10 million people under control.
The African Union has deployed a force of at least 1,500 peacekeepers from Uganda to the country and is appealing to member states to bolster the mission to 8,000 soldiers.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net
Source: Bloomberg
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