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geoffrey york

In this photo from Tuesday Aug. 9, 2011 explosives expert Martinus Van Blerk, left, and a team of Ugandan soldiers are seen just after blowing up a hand grenade left behind by Islamist rebels in the Somali capital on Tuesday. The force of the explosion stripped the bark from a nearby tree and blew up six sandbags.

In one of the world's most dangerous and desperate cities, a military victory is providing little relief to the thousands of refugees who are fleeing famine and oppression.

African Union soldiers are claiming control of about 90 per cent of Mogadishu after a sudden retreat by most of the Islamist radicals known as al-Shabab, who have been fighting for domination of the city for the past five years. Yet the withdrawal by the insurgents has failed to end the chaos that has fuelled the devastating famine in southern Somalia.

Relief agencies, trying to save the lives of 3.7 million Somalis at risk of dying from hunger, say their movements are still tightly restricted because of continuing threats from militia fighters, rogue government troops and other dangers.

More than 29,000 children have already died because of the famine in southern Somalia over the past three months and another 640,000 are acutely malnourished. International relief agencies are urgently trying to send aid into Somalia by ship and plane, but they acknowledge that their efforts so far are much less than what is needed – partly because their activities are severely hampered by the continuing threat of violence.

"It's too early to tell if there's any real change to the security situation," said Alun McDonald, a spokesman for Oxfam, which is planning to send a cargo plane with 40 tonnes of water and sanitation supplies to Mogadishu on Thursday.

"Security is a huge problem," he said in an interview. "The operating environment in Somalia has been one of the most difficult and dangerous in the world for aid agencies. We can't just change things overnight."

Despite the pullout by the Islamist militia on the weekend, fighting has continued in parts of Mogadishu. The threats from other sources were highlighted on Friday when government troops killed 10 refugees in a fight over food aid at a refugee camp in Mogadishu. Clan fighters and local warlords, who have clashed for much of the past 20 years in Somalia, are another potential threat.

The African Union military force, which has only about 9,000 troops in Mogadishu, has said that it would need 20,000 soldiers to stabilize the situation in the war-torn city. Many aid workers have been killed or kidnapped in recent years, and most agencies are carefully limiting their movements in southern Somalia.

The senior United Nations envoy in Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, echoed the concerns of the relief agencies on Wednesday in a briefing to the UN Security Council. "Without immediate action to fill this gap, a real danger exists that the warlords and their militia groups will move forward to fill the vacuum created by al-Shabab's departure," the envoy told the Security Council.

"Pockets of al-Shabab remain in Mogadishu, the security situation remains precarious and the insurgents are likely to resort to terrorist attacks and guerrilla tactics," Mr. Mahiga warned.

Mr. McDonald said Oxfam is currently providing aid to about 600,000 people across Somalia, but it would like to increase this to 1.3 million if possible. "We're able to get aid in, but not on the scale we would like," he said.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, sent 31 tonnes of aid to Mogadishu on Monday and plans to send two more flights with further aid over the rest of this week. It is aiming to reach 330,000 people by the end of this month, but it admits this is a small fraction of the 3.7 million who need aid.

Despite the retreat by the insurgents, the relief agencies are hesitating to jump back into Somalia with full-scale operations. "We're still taking a cautious approach," said a UNHCR spokesman, Andy Needham. "Withdrawing is one thing, but securing the vacated areas is another. It's very delicate."

Like most other agencies, UNHCR is still prohibiting its international staff from travelling to feeding centres to oversee the food distribution.

"The restrictions on movement are still in existence," Mr. Needham said. "Our international staff are still confined to base, which makes it more difficult."

To make matters worse, fundraising for famine relief has been relatively slow. Only about 50 per cent of the UN's fund-raising target has been reached, and it will need to renew its appeal next month, Mr. Needham said.

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