UN agencies provide aid to displaced Somalis

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has begun distributing relief items, including plastic sheets, blankets and kitchen utensils, to some 50,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Afgooye corridor, a 30-kilometre stretch of ramshackle houses northwest of Mogadishu, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported. At least 70,000 people have been displaced to the corridor since fresh fighting erupted between government forces and rebel militias in Mogadishu on May 8, according to the UNHCR. Most of those displaced are in need of emergency shelter, sanitation and water. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and local partners are already serving some 250,000 IDPs in the Afgooye corridor with clean piped and trucked water. Additional water trucking is planned for 18,000IDPs located in remote areas, the OCHA said. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF have begun a campaign to screen and treat women and children in the area. The two agencies and their local partners aim to reach at least 130,000 children under the age of five and 153,000 women of child-bearing age, Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.chinaview.cn for full version.