Hundreds of families are fleeing the restive Somali capital of Mogadishu following fierce battle between insurgents and Somali government
troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers.
There is a tense calm in the capital Thursday but an intermittent sound of small gunfire could be heard throughout the city.
Dr. Dahir Mohamed of Medina Hospital, a former police hospital, told Xinhua that 20 people have been killed including eight soldiers and more than 100 were injured, most of them civilians
caught in the crossfire, in Wednesday's battle.
People are fleeing Mogadishu on buses, cars, donkey-carts and even on foot to the southern towns of Afgoye and Marka 30 and 90 km away from Mogadishu respectively.
Hawa Isse, a mother of eight, said that Mogadishu has become no place to stay as she loaded her belonging onto the roof of a bus.
"No one cares for our children and for us, not the so-called government or insurgents," Hawa said.
A UN report said more than 40,000 civilians had fled their homes in the Somali capital, where an estimated 2.5 million residents live, to the provinces of Lower and Middle Shabelle, Bay,
Gedo, and as far as Hiran and Somaliland.
"I have moved three families to Afgoye so far this morning," said Mohamed Gure, a bus driver. "Everybody wants to get out."
"Our student numbers have dwindled as families move with their children," said Yusuf Ubeid, headmaster of Imam Shafi'i Primary
school in Mogadishu.
There has been an upsurge of sporadic attacks in Somalia particularly the capital, Mogadishu, since the Ethiopian-backed government routed Islamists in December last year. The government
has blamed remnants of the defeated Islamist movement, who are allegedly in Mogadishu under clan protection, for almost daily attacks.
The Somali government has pledged to pacify the city in time for the scheduled April 16 national reconciliation congress to be
held in Mogadishu, which is expected to be attended by 3,000 delegates from inside and outside Somalia. The Somali Parliament
based in Baidoa, a town 250km south of Mogadishu, has voted unanimously to relocate the cabinet to Mogadishu early this month.
Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former ruler Mohamed Siad Barre and then
turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.
The transitional government was formed in 2004 with U.N. help, but has little authority across the country.