© UNHCR/R.Gangale

UNHCR is alarmed by a new escalation of violence in several parts of south central Somalia. The agency is particularly worried for the civilian population caught up in what appears to be a coordinated offensive against Al-Shabaab militants on multiple fronts, namely in Mogadishu and within the Hiiraan and Gedo regions.

Around 300 Somalis crossed into Kenya to escape the fighting, and UNHCR has received reports from them of many injuries. Other civilians, including women, children and the elderly, remain trapped and unable to reach safety.

UNHCR fears that displaced Somalis could be squeezed on three fronts, unable to escape and seek refuge in either Ethiopia, Kenya or in Somalia’s northern Puntland region. We have urged all armed groups and forces in Somalia to avoid targeting civilian areas and to ensure that civilians are not being placed in harm’s way.

Our Somalia operation has deployed staff to the Kenyan town of Mandera near the Somalia border, while an emergency team from the Dadaab refugee camp is on stand-by. UNHCR has dispatched 2,000 emergency relief kits, comprising shelter materials, blankets and kitchen sets, from Mombasa for distribution in the Gedo region for those displaced from Beled Hawo and other areas. Together with a local partner, UNHCR has also distributed 2,500 emergency relief kits in Mogadishu’s Dharkenley district. Security permitting, the agency is planning to undertake more such activities in the coming weeks.

Somalia generates the highest number of refugees in the world, after Afghanistan and Iraq, with almost 1.5 million internally displaced and over 680,000 Somalis living as refugees in neighboring countries.