 | You mean, more than we've seen already? |
GENEVA - Fighting in Somalia may trigger a new wave ofdisplacement of civilians and further strain relief efforts in the poverty-stricken east African country, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday.
Clashes between Islamist militias and Ethiopian-aided government troops have already uprooted thousands of people in the central and southern part of the country, Guterres added in a statement. ‘I appeal to all sides in this conflict to respect humanitarian principles and protect civilian populations,’ he said. ‘Relief workers in the region are already struggling to contend with huge obstacles, including security and natural disasters.’
| Which they haven't been managing to do for the last, oh, thirty years, so why start now? |
The unrest adds to a series of other misfortunes -- man-made and natural --plaguing Somalia in recent months. Besides internal conflict, drought and more recently heavy rain have also hit the country this year, further hindering humanitarian efforts.
| Drought, floods, hailstorms, locusts -- none of these things cripple a country full of Lutherans. |
‘The last thing we and the people of Somalia need is yet another round of massive displacement,’ Guterres said.
| It's the last thing the people need but the first thing you need, else you wouldn't have a job. |
Regional staff monitoring the situation from nearby Kenya, Ethiopia and Yemen have yet to detect massive cross-border migration, but several thousand people appear to be on the move within Somalia, the UN said.
| This is in a country of about 8.5 million people. The UN couldn't handle a busload of kids headed to a pep rally. |
Roughly 34,000 Somalis fled earlier this year to neighboring Kenya because of internal unrest, estimates the UN, which operates three refugee camps in northeastern Kenya sheltering 160,000 mostly Somalian refugees.
| And the UN is paralyzed by that too. |
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