Fighting in northeastern Somalia forces thousands to flee: Report | Stories

A district official says thousands of people in the town of Bosaso have fled the fighting between two warring factions.

Clashes between two security forces in a port city in northeastern Somalia have forced hundreds of families to flee their homes, a regional official said.

The fighting has been raging for several days in Bosaso, the state capital of Puntland in the northeast of the country, an AFP report said on Saturday.

“Thousands of Bosaso residents have fled … as fighting continues in other parts of the city,” government official Abdirizak Mohamed told AFP.

“Many people decided to leave their homes after the warring parties used heavy machine guns and mud,” mostly from two parts of the town, “he said.

Mohamed said it was unclear how many people had left the town on the Gulf of Aden, but said it was “hundreds of families”.

On Thursday, the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said it was “deeply concerned” by the level of violence that has forced thousands to flee for safety.

“With the ongoing fighting in the town of Bosaso … more than half of the city’s residents have been evicted,” OCHA Somalia representative Adam Abdelmoula said in a statement.

He added that the conflict has also affected families who have been evacuated as a result of previous conflicts.

“About 40 percent of the 70,000 refugees living in the town of Bosaso are also displaced,” Abdelmoula said.

Located in the northern part of Somalia, Puntland is one of only five countries in the Horn of Africa.