Conflict deepens Somalia's humanitarian crisis

NAIROBI, Dec 27 (Reuters) Already living in one of the world's poorest and most violent nations, Somalis face yet more suffering following the outbreak of war between their government and a rival Islamist movement.

Aid agencies are bracing to cope with mass casualties from the front lines, the flight of thousands of people from conflict zones and the widespread disruption of relief shipments.

''Our colleagues in the field have never seen such devastating violence in Somalia in ten years,'' Pedram Yazdi, a delegate for the Somalia operation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told Reuters.

After a week of warfare in southern Somalia between the Islamists and the Ethiopian-backed interim government, however, there has not yet been the mass refugee exodus many had feared.

But witnesses report people streaming away from flashpoints, and aid workers at northern Kenya's Dadaab refugee camps are preparing for a worst case scenario of 200,000 people crossing the border from Somalia.

Already this year 34,000 Somalis -- many fleeing fighting when the Islamists took the capital Mogadishu and a swathe of south Somalia in June -- have joined one of Dadaab's three camps of flimsy huts built on sandy scrubland.

The camps currently house 168,000 people, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that even before last week's flare-up, more than half a million of Somalia's 10 million people were receiving emergency aid due in part to a severe drought followed by the worst floods for years.

''Should this conflict continue it will be a massive burden on aid agencies trying to bring relief to the already hostile area,'' WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon said.

HUNDREDS OF WOUNDED Since Somalia sank into anarchy following the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, international aid agencies have struggled to operate there because of security risks to their staff.

Most rely on local Somali personnel.

Both sides in the Somali conflict say they have killed hundreds, but there has been no independent verification of that from chaotic and remote battle-fronts.

The ICRC says its staff have verified at least 800 wounded admitted to local clinics during a week of fighting.

''The figure is rising every day. We don't have figures of deaths because they are not brought to the hospitals,'' Yazdi said. ''But considering the daily increase of wounded, it is easy to say the violence has already killed many.'' Yazdi said the ICRC was supporting 23 clinics across south-central Somalia and three hospitals in the Mogadishu area.

''We are calling on all the parties to respect international humanitarian laws, to allow secure access to wounded and vulnerable people,'' he added. ''We are also appealing for the different parties to provide fair treatment to prisoners.'' UN children's agency UNICEF said youngsters were particularly at risk due to separation from families, displacement and conscription by both sides.

''An increase in recruitment and use of children under the age of 18 in armed forces and groups by all parties to the conflict has also been observed, which is another serious violation of international law,'' UNICEF said in a statement.

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