Tusindvis af internt fordrevne somaliere er tvunget til at flygte fra Afgoye-området syd for Mogadishu.
Det skriver BBC online torsdag.
Hundreds of loaded lorries and small vehicles are streaming into Mogadishu. African Union forces say they launched a major assault on Wednesday on Afgoye, a stronghold of Islamic militants.
Up to 400.000 people live in the area – in sprawling roadside camps, amid unsanitary conditions and rife hunger. The BBC says people fled to the Afgoye corridor when fighting in the capital escalated in 2007.
They are now heading back to Mogadishu to escape heavy artillery shelling and mortar fire as African Union and Somali government troops battle al-Shabab militants for control of Afgoye, about 30 kms from Mogadishu.
BBC reports that thousands will be returning to already overcrowded camps in the capital – with no running water and no electricity. But one resident of the Afgoye corridor told the BBC she would rather be in Mogadishu and seek shelter in a bombed-out, but concrete building than risk staying in a makeshift cloth-and-plastic shelter as fighting rages.
BBC writes that the African Union forces have 100 tanks and armoured vehicles within 10km of Afgoye. If they take the town it would be a major blow to al-Shabab – and help secure the capital, where the al-Qaeda-linked group has staged a series of suicide attacks in recent weeks.
