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New satellite images show worsening displacement crisis

Recent Satellite imagery shows that a virtual new city is growing up to the west of the Somali capital in the so-called Afgooye corridor. We now estimate that up to 410,000 people live in the Afgooye corridor while our previous assessment in 2009 put the number at 366,000. A number of makeshift sites had sprung up along the 30-kilometre stretch of road since fighting in the beleaguered capital escalated in 2007.

New improved satellite technology means that UNHCR is now able to estimate displaced population numbers despite the difficult security situation and lack of access on the ground.

The satellite images indicate that there has been very significant recent new building of both permanent and temporary structures. We were able to identify and map every individual building and temporary shelter. Overall there are 91,397 temporary shelters and 15,495 permanent ones in the area.

In addition to some 410,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Afgooye, UNHCR estimates there are some 75,000 additional people spread around the captial. In Mogadishu itself some 370,000 people are internally displaced. Entire new towns have replaced makeshift IDP sites with more people living in rudimentary buildings alongside the tens of thousands of shelters made of cloth and fabric.

Overall it appears that structures in Afgooye are becoming more permanent as hopes fade for a safe return to the capital any time soon. Within a four weeks period, almost 12,000 people fled to the Afgooye corridor, which has become the third largest urban area in Somalia after Mogadishu and Hargeisa in Somaliland.

Living conditions in the Afgooye corridor are extremely difficult. People struggle for food and other basic necessities as the precarious security situation is preventing humanitarian agencies from accessing people in need.

Some assistance is getting there through UNHCR's local partners, but the amounts are miniscule in comparison with the needs. Many people take risks and walk to Mogadishu and back every day in search of a daily living. Basic services such as health and education are scarce and rudimentary.