By Guled Mohamed

MOGADISHU, Aug 23 (Reuters) - At least 18 Somalis died this week after a generator-powered well used by thousands of people in a semi-desert region broke down, elders said on Thursday.

Some of the dead had drunk contaminated water after the electric-powered pump bringing clean supplies from deep underground stopped working. Others, left with no water at all, died of thirst.

"This is a disaster," Suldan Abdi Ali, an elder from Dif district, said by telephone from the area which borders Kenya.

"At least 18 have died this week and hundreds have been forced to trek to Afmadow, 180km (111 miles) from Dif, to look for water," he told Reuters. "We need urgent help."

Abdirahman Haji Ahmed, another elder from Dif who is in the capital Mogadishu for peace talks, also sounded the alarm.

"Pregnant women, children and the elderly ... cannot trek to drink water," he said. "We request international aid agencies to help the poor people."

Somalia has had no functioning central government since clan-based warlords overthrew military ruler Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the Horn of Africa country into anarchy.

Thousands have died since then from war and periodic famines that have ravaged the impoverished nation of 9 million people.

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