Somalis flee mayhem of Mogadishu

MOGADISHU, Feb 15 (Reuters) Her possessions and her two children at her side in a dusty bus stop in Mogadishu, Asha Mohamed has decided to forsake Somalia's capital city for anyplace with fewer explosions.

''I am running away from the continuous mortar and rocket attacks,'' Mohamed said yesterday as her son played on an old mattress. ''I have survived several attacks. I cannot continue staying here. We are waiting for a bus.'' Dozens of people have died in the attacks that began when the government took over Mogadishu in January after defeating an Islamist movement that had controlled most of southern Somalia for six months, imposing a semblance of order.

Mohamed's plight, like that of hundreds whom aid agencies say have been fleeing the unrest, underscores the challenge facing the interim government in convincingly grabbing hold of a city that has not had any sort of lasting order for 16 years.

As she waited, government soldiers and their Ethiopian military backers beefed up patrols to discourage more assaults like those that have been aimed at them since January.

Many blame remnants of the Islamists the government and Ethiopia defeated in a brief December war for the attacks in the still-anarchic Horn of Africa nation.

But in a city where the government could only set foot six weeks ago -- more than two years after it was formed at peace talks in neighbouring Kenya -- residents say there are many gunmen who could be responsible.

''This city is full of unknown enemies who don't care whether we survive or not,'' one woman, carrying two mattresses and her clothes in a yellow plastic bag, said exasperatedly before boarding a bus headed for Afgooye, a nearby agricultural town.

MOTHER AND FATHER ''I am leaving the city because of the gunmen. I don't know who is targeting civilians here. Is it the so-called government or some hypocrites who claim to fight in the name of religion?'' the woman, who declined to give her name, said. Most of those fleeing Mogadishu are refugees who came to the city to escape conflict elsewhere in the country, which has had no successful central government since warlords ousted Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and made Somalia a synonym for anarchy.

Many live in the most abject conditions to be found in one of the world's poorest countries, scraping out a living and staying in huts made of plastic sheets and sticks. Their camps have been hit by mortar bombs several times.

''I have experienced the worst insecurity now in Mogadishu since I began selling tea here eight years ago,'' Madina Isak said, perched with her two children atop a truck overloaded with fleeing residents and their possessions headed for Baidoa.

Isak may be considered lucky. Adow Mohamed -- who survived a crocodile attack several years ago -- can only dream of fleeing.

''All my neighbours have gone to Afgooye,'' Mohamed said, standing with the help of two crutches and gesturing towards a deserted house made of tattered clothes and sticks where hundreds of refugees had huddled together.

''I wish I could also run away with my children because mortars can fall anytime. Unfortunately, I cannot go anywhere since I have no money. I beg for food and my wife is dead. I am the mother and father of my children.'' REUTERS BDP HS0837