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NAIROBI, May 26 -- The UN refuge agency said at least 9,200 Somalishave been displaced in the past three days by the ongoing militaryactivity between insurgents and allied forces in Afgooye, about 30kilometers northwest of Mogadishu. Afgooye has for a long time been a stronghold of Al-Shabaabinsurgents and is a strategic junction for routes to the north,west and south of Somalia. "Since May 22 to date the UNHCR Somalia Population MovementTracking (PMT) system has recorded 9,200 displacements from Afgooyedue to military activity in the area," the UN agency said in itsupdate released in Nairobi on Saturday. UNHCR said the majority of these people have fled to Mogadishu withsome to Lower Shabelle and Lower Juba regions, adding that there isno indication of any people arriving in Bay region. In the so-called Operation Free Shabelle, Africa Union peacekeepingmission in Somalia (AMISOM) said that its forces, and those of theSomali National Army, crossed the Shabelle River on Friday andsecured all the major roads leading into and out of Afgooye town. Leaders of the Al-Qaida-affiliated terror group are believed tohave fled the town, which was their main base in the region andwhere they were known to have been extorting revenues from farmers,traders and pastoralists. The Afgooye town is also strategically located 30 km from thecapital, Mogadishu, and governing routes to the port town of Marka,as well as the towns of Baidoa and Jowhar. "Reports indicate that the IDPs seem to be arriving in alldistricts of Mogadishu, but mainly to Zona K in Hodan, Radaarka andOdweyne in Dayniile, Jiiroo Maskin and Ex-US embassy in Wadajiiramong others," UNHCR said. According to the UN refugee agency, reports also indicate that theroad between Dayniile and Afgooye may be blocked. On Monday, AMISOM launched a joint military operation with theSomali National Army, code-named 'Operation Free Shabelle' with theobjective of securing the Afgooye corridor, home to the world' slargest concentration of internally displaced people. Operations are still ongoing to secure the market town of ElashaBiyaha. Harabsca, a trading center located 26 km from Mogadishu,has also been secured. Somalia has been undergoing a peace and national reconciliationprocess after decades of conflict, with the country's TransitionalFederal Institutions currently implementing a roadmap, devised inSeptember last year, that spells out priority measures to becarried out before the current transitional governing arrangementsend on Aug. 20. Until last year, most of Mogadishu was, for several years, riven bya fluid frontline dividing the two sides fighters belonging tothe Al-Shabaab movement and troops belonging to Somalia'sTransitional Federal Government, with the latter supported byAMISOM's peacekeeping forces. Since the Al-Shabaab withdrawal from the capital's central parts inAugust last year, the frontlines were pushed back to the city'ssurrounding area. However, the use of roadside bombs, grenades and suicide bombers isstill a regular occurrence, and outbreaks of fighting still takeplace. I am an expert from ledacrylicdisplay.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Coin Tray LED Manufacturer , Fiber Optic LED Animation Sign, Magnetic Floating Display,and more.
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