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Somalia is 'most ignored tragedy' Somalia is 'most ignored tragedy'
(about 19 hours later)
The world should be shocked at the systematic destruction of Somalia's capital Mogadishu and its residents, says lobby group Human Rights Watch. The world should be shocked at the systematic destruction of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, and its residents, says lobby group Human Rights Watch.
The organisation told the BBC the city had become a zone of free-fire between government and insurgent forces.The organisation told the BBC the city had become a zone of free-fire between government and insurgent forces.
It said if such a situation was happening anywhere else in the world, like Georgia or Lebanon for example, it would be considered a travesty.It said if such a situation was happening anywhere else in the world, like Georgia or Lebanon for example, it would be considered a travesty.
Instead Somalia was the most ignored tragedy in the world today, HRW said.Instead Somalia was the most ignored tragedy in the world today, HRW said.
Mogadishu is dying; it is a city on the Indian Ocean coast that used to be one of Africa's trading hubs with the Middle East. Meanwhile, a group of 52 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has issued a statement saying the international community had "completely failed Somali civilians".
Now whole swathes of it are rubble or skeletons of buildings without doors or windows or roofs. The aid groups estimate that almost 40,000 people had been displaced from Mogadishu in the last few weeks, with 1.1 million uprooted in the last nine months.
The most shocking, eerie aspect of it is that in many parts of the capital all the people have fled. Eerie
Aid vacuum BBC World Affairs correspondent Mark Doyle recently visited Mogadishu and says the city on the Indian Ocean, which was previously one of Africa's trading hubs with the Middle East, is dying.
The fighting is between the US-backed government and Islamist and nationalist insurgents, who Washington accuses of having links with al-Qaeda. Ghost city wracked by war Video: In Somalia's danger zone Ghost city wracked by war Video: In Somalia's danger zone
The Somali government has no capacity to count the number of people who have fled and there are no international aid workers left to do the job because they would be kidnapped for ransom or murdered. Now whole swathes of it are rubble or skeletons of buildings without doors or windows or roofs, he says.
But the fighting has been worse for the ordinary residents of Mogadishu than even the infamous period in the early 1990s that spawned the film Black Hawk Down, a portrayal of American troops killed in Somalia at that time. He adds that the most shocking, eerie aspect of it is that in many parts of the capital all the people have fled.
Today is worse than Black Hawk Down for the people of Mogadishu, much worse. The fighting is between the US-backed government and Islamist and nationalist insurgents, who Washington accuses of having links with al-Qaeda.
I was in the city in the early 1990s. It was an extremely violent time. There are no international aid workers left as they are threatened with kidnap for ransom or are murdered.
Not a night passed without explosions lighting up the sky but even that did not empty the capital of Somalia like the daily fratricidal confrontations now taking place between the government and its armed opponents. The fighting has been much worse for the ordinary residents of Mogadishu than even the infamous period in the early 1990s that spawned the film Black Hawk Down, a portrayal of US troops killed in Somalia at that time, our World Affairs correspondent says.
In the early 1990s not a night passed without explosions lighting up the sky, he says.
But even that did not empty the capital of Somalia like the daily fratricidal confrontations now taking place between the government and its armed opponents.