Somalia: Thousands of civilians flee Pudland’s financial capital over fighting

Thousands of Bossasso residents in the northeastern Somali state of Pudland have fled the city for days of hostilities, local officials told AFP on Saturday, confirming information from the United Nations Coordination Office (UNHCR).

Fighting has been raging since Tuesday between rival units of the security forces in the commercial capital of Pudland, where a port of strategic importance is located in the Gulf of Aden.

“Thousands of residents of the city of Bosasso have fled in recent days after sporadic fighting broke out in various parts of the city,” Abdrizak Mohammed, a local official, said by telephone yesterday.

“Most of them decided to leave their homes because the opposing parties used heavy weapons and mortars,” he added.

He added that the “exact” number of displaced is not clear.

It is difficult to verify how many people have been killed in Bosasso. Some sources yesterday spoke of “eight” or “ten” dead, mostly civilians. On Tuesday, an official in Bosasso spoke of at least 12 dead and dozens injured.

On Friday, OCHA expressed “grave concern” about the impact of hostilities on the civilian population.

“As fighting continues in the city of Bosasso for the third day in a row, more than half the population has been displaced,” said Adam Abdelmoula, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Somalia, without giving specific figures.

In addition, according to OCHA, “approximately 40% of the 70,000 internally displaced” Somalis who had taken refuge in Bosasso are now experiencing a “second displacement” due to the violence.

In the far north of Somalia, Pudland is one of the five semi-autonomous states of the federal state, where the armed conflict continues for decades and there is insecurity.

Source: AMPE