Somalia

An additional 5,500 people have been displaced this week from the capital of strife-torn Somalia, the UN reported Oct. 17, bringing the total number of those uprooted by fighting between Government forces and Islamic insurgents since Sept. 21 to over 61,000. The clashes that erupted last month in Mogadishu have been some of the worst violence to hit the city in over a year and a half, and began just weeks after the signing of a UN-brokered peace deal between the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the rebel Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) aimed at ending the fighting. (UN News Service)