UN calls for protection of Somali asylum seekers

The United Nations refugee agency has called on the international community to secure the protection of asylum seekers from Somalia, Press TV reports.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed concern over the rising number of Somalis forced to leave their country as a result of violent clashes between government forces and al-Shabab fighters.

The UNHCR said that Somalis coming from the country’s south and central regions were most in need of protection against security threats.

According to the refugee agency, about 42,000 people in Somalia sought asylum last year. Countries such as Saudi Arabia have sent many of these people back home.

Reports suggest that last year, nearly 60,000 Somalis were also displaced in the country’s southern and central areas.

The UNHCR’s Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba said that monthly deaths in Somalia “fluctuated between 100 and 600 people.”

She said that the violence in June last year caused at least 314 casualties in Kismayo, adding that civilians were at risk of losing their lives or being wounded in the crossfire between the government troops and the fighters, as well as by bomb attacks.

Late last month, the UN Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) said at least 870,000 people, many of them being displaced, were still in need of emergency humanitarian assistance while some 2.3 million people continue to live in a situation of fragile food security.

Somalia did not have an effective central government from 1991 until August 2012. Sheikh Mohamud was elected as the country’s new president in September 2012, after a great majority of MPs meeting in Mogadishu voted for him.

The violence in the country continues despite the presence of many of African Union (AU) troops.