NAIROBI, September 21, 2007 (AP) - Civilians are more afraid than ever of being targeted by fighting in Somalia's capital, where combatants pay children $100 to throw grenades and an insurgency rages unabated, a human rights expert said Friday.

Ghanim Alnajjar, the U.N.'s independent expert on human rights in Somalia, visited Mogadishu Thursday. He relies on interviews with a wide range of people to make regular reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

"People are afraid of being killed, being arrested by anybody -so-called insurgents,...soldiers, by anybody," Alnajjar said at a news conference.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. The current government was formed in 2004, but has struggled to assert any real control.

A radical Islamist group ruled the capital and much of southern Somalia for six months last year, but was kicked out by Ethiopian troops who support the government. Since then, insurgents and government-allied troops have battled nearly every day, and thousands of civilians have been killed this year alone.

Interior Minister Mohamed Mohamoud Guled declined to comment on Alnajjar's remarks.

Alnajjar said all sides in the conflict use child soldiers - a frequent accusation in this largely lawless country - but that insurgents use them the most.

"They take these children and give them $100 and they throw grenades at people to create this situation," Alnajjar told The Associated Press after Friday's news conference.

In January, the AP interviewed boys as young as 14 who said they had fought in Somalia. The government and Islamic militants have denied using child soldiers.

Alnajjar, a political science professor at Kuwait University, visits Somalia at least once a year. He does not work under any U.N. department, relying on the U.N. only for transport and other logistics.

During his visit Thursday, the heads of U.N. agencies working in Somalia met with Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf and Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi to improve security and access to humanitarian aid to an estimated 1.5 million people who need assistance, a U.N. statement said.

Somalian government officials have in recent weeks called for assistance to help deal with the effects of flooding in southern Somalia and also those displaced by the violence in Mogadishu. But aid agencies have said in the past that Somali officials have hampered their work or delayed aid at roadblocks.

"There are some 13,500 children in Middle and Lower Shabelle (regions of southern Somalia) who are at risk of dying from malnutrition, but there just aren't enough feeding centers or adequate access to all areas to ensure the speedy and safe delivery of supplies," said Christian Balslev-Olesen, the Somalia country director of the U.N. children's agency.

Source: AP

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