“Hundreds of displaced people are returning to Mogadishu fearing fighting in the Afgoye corridor,” Moalim Abudule, a district official, told reporters. AFP
Hundreds of Somalis fled their homes Thursday fearing clashes after African Union troops attacked holdout Islamist al-Shabaab militia positions on the outskirts of the war-wracked capital Mogadishu. Columns of loaded vehicles headed into the city from Elashabiyaha and KM13 districts outside Mogadishu, as AU forces moved into positions they seized from the al-Qaeda-linked rebels this week after heavy fighting. The neighborhoods lie on the road to rebel-held Afgoye town, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of Mogadishu, which the AU forces have said they also plan to attack. “Hundreds of displaced people are returning to Mogadishu fearing fighting in the Afgoye corridor,” Moalim Abudule, a district official, told reporters. “We are receiving many of them here in Dharkinley district, but unfortunately we have no proper shelters to assist them.” Many Mogadishu residents had fled to the Afgoye area, which the U.N. says hosts the world’s largest settlement for the displaced, in the wake of intense battles between the AU troops and the al-Qaeda allied militia in recent years. However, people are now fleeing Afgoye for fear of imminent attacks after the deputy head of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) said that troops would soon launch an assault as part of a drive to defeat the al-Shabaab. The U.N. declared camps in Afgoye and in Mogadishu to be famine zones last year, but this month it said the situation had improved. The 10,000-strong AMISOM force has been fighting to secure Mogadishu, six months after the al-Shabaab abandoned fixed bases there and resorted to guerrilla attacks including suicide and car bombings. “People are worried about the new phase of the war. AMISOM and TFG (government) troops are now heading towards (Afgoye) corridor, forcing us to flee back to Mogadishu,” said Abdirisak Adan. Yasin Mohamed, who also returned to Mogadishu, said: “Everyone fears AMISOM plans to take control of the Afgoye corridor and people will be caught up in the fighting.” The insurgents are facing increasing pressure from the AU troops and regional armies, with Kenyan soldiers battling them in the far south and Ethiopian troops in southwestern Somalia. Much of south and central Somalia still remains under al-Shabaab control. Last month, the AU asked the United Nations for a mandate to boost its Somalia deployment to 17,731 troops, above the currently authorized maximum of 12,000.
