NAIROBI, 18 April 2007 (IRIN) - NAIROBI, 18 April 2007 (IRIN) - Civil society organisations in Somalia have appealed to the international community to help thousands of families that have been displaced over the past three months following violence in the capital, Mogadishu.

"We are appealing to donor agencies, particularly to the United Nations, to urgently come to the assistance of these people who are living in the open," Madina Muhammad Ilmi, the deputy head of a civil society taskforce to help the displaced, said on Wednesday.

The most pressing need is shelter material, to help people already weakened by lack of food and water, said Ilmi. "We need help in all areas, but plastic sheeting is urgently needed," she added.

It is estimated that at least 200,000 people have fled their homes in the city since February. Ilmi said almost all the displaced were depending on help from outside and were living in the most appalling conditions.

Diseases such as diarrhoea and respiratory problems among children and the elderly were taking a heavy toll on the displaced, she said, adding that with the onset of the 'Gu' (long) rains, the situation will get worse for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) if the rains pick up as expected.

The taskforce recently distributed 600 plastic sheets donated by a business group. Ilmi urged the aid agencies to address the shelter needs of the displaced "as a matter of extreme urgency".

The United Nations has expressed concern at the lack of access to the affected populations due to the prevailing insecurity in Mogadishu.

"Insecurity in and around the capital has obstructed humanitarian partners from scaling up the response to meet the vast needs of the displaced," according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for Somalia.

OCHA-Somalia said that while relief supplies were available in Mogadishu, insecurity had prevented access to warehouses, and so far the response has been minimal. Response efforts, it added, had also been undermined as much by last minute administrative procedures requested by authorities as by insecurity on the ground.

"Strategically located airstrips such as K50 [south of the city] and Merka [100 km south] remain inaccessible despite repeated appeals to allow their use by humanitarian partners," said OCHA-Somalia.

Meanwhile, heavy fighting broke out on Tuesday night in Mogadishu, local sources told IRIN. The fighting started around 8:30 p.m. local time in Wardigley area [south] and quickly spread to other parts of the city.

The fighting, which continued until 3:00 a.m., "was one of the heaviest in recent days, and started when Ethiopian troops tried to reinforce their positions in an area around the stadium [football]," the local source said.

Medical sources said at least 11 people were killed and 45 injured in the latest clashes. Clan elders who negotiated a ceasefire with Ethiopian troops in the city said it was still being observed despite the clashes.

"It is a matter of disengagement. So long as the sides are facing each other there will be clashes, that is why we are insisting that Ethiopians should return to their former bases and away from population centres," said Ugas Abdidahir Ugas Nur, a member of the Hawiye council of elders.

ah/jm

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