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 UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes urged the international community to not to turn its back on Somalia at a time of desperate need, saying the government appears to be seriously underestimating the humanitarian suffering in the country.
Holmes told the Security Council on Monday that the United Nations believes almost 400,000 people fled Mogadishu in recent fighting and that the vast majority have not returned. The Somali government claims that only 40,000 were displaced and about half have returned to the capital.
Holmes visited Mogadishu earlier this month and met President Abdullahi Yusuf, but his planned two-day trip was cut short when two explosions went off — one of them near the U.N. compound that killed three people.
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