No reprieve as displaced Somalis suffer in silence

By Guled Mohamed

LAFOOLE, Somalia (Reuters) - As dozens of weakened Somalis received aid at a former university turned refugee camp, Shire Siyad and some of his children brace themselves for another cold rainy night under a tree.

"Please give me some of the cutlery and blankets," he shouted in a hoarse voice at an aid worker immersed in the chaos of distributing mosquito nets and jerry cans for storing water and plastic sheeting.

Siyad and his family fled to this settlement 20 km (12 miles) from Mogadishu to escape clashes this weekend between Islamist insurgents and the Ethiopian-backed Somali interim government.

The fighting has killed thousands this year and forced a massive exodus of mostly women and children from the capital against a backdrop of gunfire and roadside bombings.

The number of Somalis uprooted inside their country has soared to 1 million, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday.

It said 600,000 people were believed to have fled Mogadishu since February this year, nearly one-third of that number in the past two weeks alone, emptying entire neighborhoods.

The number of displaced this year are in addition to 400,000 people forced to flee their homes because of previous fighting.

"We are suffering silently since there is no one listening to us," Siyad said, looking pale and disheveled.

"We are sleeping under a tree and this is the rainy season. I don't know the fate of my other nine children and my wife in Mogadishu," he said, adding he was forced to leave behind the others because he could not afford to pay for their transport.

As thousands struggle to survive in overcrowded, squalid camps, red tape, looting and detentions blamed on government forces are hampering operations, aid workers say.

With little humanitarian assistance on the ground hope is fading fast among many.

"Denying there is half a million people on the move and suffering ... this is not a responsible attitude," said Eric Laroche, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, referring to a government that is struggling to impose its authority in the lawless Horn of Africa country.

He's not then only one that is frustrated.

Seated in a makeshift neonatal clinic run by Doctors Without Borders with her severely malnourished grandson at her side, 65-year-old Edo Osman is gloomy.

"His mother has just delivered another boy 10 days ago. This is one problem on top of another. We are poor and do not know who to blame for our misery," she said.