The escalating conflict in Mogadishu is having a devastating impact on
the city’s population causing enormous suffering and massive
displacement. By yesterday, the eight-week-long offensive led by the
Al-Shabab and Hisb-ul-Islam militia against government forces had driven
a staggering 204,000 residents from their homes, making it the biggest
exodus from the troubled Somali capital since the Ethiopian intervention
in 2007.

According to our local partners, fighting in the past week alone has
killed some 105 people and injured 382.

Neighbourhoods affected by the fighting include Kaaran, Shibis,
Shangaani and Boondheere in North Mogadishu. These areas have hitherto
been islands of peace, escaping much of the conflict and destruction.
Many residents are fleeing their homes for the first time since the
start of the Somali civil war in 1991.

While many of the displaced were fleeing to the Afgooye corridor,
some 30 km west of Mogadishu, which already hosts over 400,000 victims
of previous conflicts, the majority are now heading further afield to
the Lower and Middle Shabelle, Galgaduud, Bay and Lower Juba regions.
Estimates place the number of internally displaced in Somalia at more
than 1.2 million.

Despite the fact that the Kenyan border is officially closed and Kenyan
authorities are not allowing asylum-seekers to cross into Kenya, the
number of people arriving in the UNHCR-run Dadaab refugee complex
situated in near the Somali border in northern Kenya continues to rise.

Since May, more than 11,000 Somali refugees have been registered at the
refugee camp, bringing to 36,000 the number of Somali refugees who have
arrived in the camp since the beginning of the year. According to
UNHCR, the actual number of new arrivals is much higher since many of
them head directly to urban centres like Nairobi, Mombasa and Garissa.
Dadaab refugee complex now hosts some 284, 306 refugees.