Renewed heavy fighting between Transitional Federal Government troops, supported by African Union peace-keepers, and armed opposition groups in the Somali capital of Mogadishu has displaced more than 17,000 people since May.

According to field reports, as the rate of casualties and displacement accelerated towards the end of May at least 60 people have been killed and more than 50 wounded and injured in street clashes. Such clashes have displaced an estimated 200,000 Somalis since the beginning of the year.

The majority of Somalis who were forced to flee from their homes in the past fortnight are displaced within the capital. Mogadishu already shelters more than 350,000 internally displaced people. Meanwhile, the number of displaced families in Mogadishu living in extreme conditions is increasing, according to reports from UNHCR's partners. Many families cannot afford transport to the makeshift camps west of Mogadishu in the Afgooye corridor where large numbers of IDPs have fled.

Somalia generates one of the highest number of forcefully displaced people in the world. An estimated 1.4 million Somalis are displaced within the country, while more than 580,000 live as refugees in neighbouring countries. About 40 per cent of the Somali population lives below the extreme poverty line and one in seven Somali children die before the age of five.

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