Somalian 'ghost city' wracked by war
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- GrandKnow2
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more from News and Politics:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7651776.stm
Years of conflict in Somalia have left large parts of the country in the hands of warlords while its capital, Mogadishu, is contested by Ethiopian-backed government forces and armed insurgents.The city has been abandoned by at least half of its residents. The BBC's World Affairs Correspondent, Mark Doyle, sent this report from a war zone few Western journalists dare to visit.
The bombed-out buildings are shocking enough.
There are street after ruined street of them in the centre of Mogadishu.
Some have been reduced by shellfire to rubble. Others retain a building-like shape - the rough skeletons of once-ornate Italian colonial apartment blocks or shopping arcades.
But the really eerie side to many parts of Mogadishu is the lack of people.
The last 18 months of fighting have seen the population plummet in a way that even the infamous Black Hawk Down year - 1993 - did not achieve.
According to the United Nations, at least half of Mogadishu's population - perhaps 500,000 people - have fled.
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- goldenways
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khromadjo
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I am not surprised by the mass exodus of folk from such scorched ground. Safe journey to them all.
- 1 year ago
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khromadjo
