20110115
reuters

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Thousands of rural Somalis are camping within earshot of fighting in the capital Mogadishu after Islamic militants prevented aid groups from helping them survive a drought.

Al Shabaab rebels, who profess loyalty to al Qaeda, have forced a number of aid groups, including the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) to cease operations in parts of the country, parched by the failure of recent rains.

Medics in Mogadishu, where there are daily gunfights between the rebels and African Union peacekeepers protecting the Western-backed government, said they were seeing a growing number of dysentery, diarrhoea and malnourishment cases.

"We receive hundreds of children and mothers sick with drought-related diseases every day," Abdirizak, a doctor at Mogadishu's Banadir Hospital told Reuters.

WFP pulled out of southern Somalia a year ago because of threats against its staff and demands from al Shabaab of payments for security. Mogadishu-based rights group Elman said other aid groups have also given up distributing aid.

"I am from the Lower Shabelle region where al Shabaab have denied us access to food relief. My herds of cattle and goats have perished," Ahmed Disow told Reuters as he tended to his two surviving scrawny cows in Mogadishu's Madina suburb.

"We have spent a week under this tree and we cannot afford to build even a simple shelter. We urge aid agencies to assist us," the 50-year old father of seven said.

He is part of a new wave of refugees from a four-year Islamist insurgency that has killed more than 21,000 people, uprooted 1.5 million people from their homes and left roughly one quarter of Somalia's 9 million people dependent on aid.