Mogadishu has become the most congested city in Africa as Somalis are fleeing rural areas for the cities seeking shelter and aid, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), which provides data and analysis on internal displacement, said on Tuesday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2018) Mogadishu has become the most congested city in Africa as Somalis are fleeing rural areas for the cities seeking shelter and aid, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), which provides data and analysis on internal displacement, said on Tuesday.Earlier in the day, the IDMC released a report on the new and secondary displacements in Mogadishu in 2017 and the first half of 2018, which are mostly linked to conflict and natural disasters.
"[As many as] 2.6 million people are displaced within Somalia. Drought, competition for resources and poor living conditions has fuelled fighting in rural areas, and pushed people towards Mogadishu ... This has made Mogadishu the second most densely populated city in the world (after Dhaka) and the most densely populated city in Africa," the IDMC said in a press release, accompanying the report.
Mogadishu is now home to about 600,000 displaced people, most of whom are living in informal camps, according to the IDMC.
"Somali families are fleeing to Mogadishu seeking shelter, protection and aid. With nowhere else to go, they crowd into camps that are unhealthy and unsafe. This influx has made Mogadishu the most densely populated city in Africa, with more people arriving every day," Evelyn Aero, the regional adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said as quoted in the press release.
The IDMC was established in 1998 as part of the NRC and describes its mission as providing high-quality data and expertise on internal displacement to inform policy decisions, which could improve the lives of internally displaced persons worldwide.
