Risky for press

---

Click to view caption

A government soldier fires at Islamist fighters on the frontline in Derkenley district in Mogadishu

SOMALIA has emerged this year as "the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, outstripping Iraq", according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

In the most recent example, two French security advisers posing as journalists were abducted this week from their hotel in Mogadishu by Somali gunmen. French Foreign Ministry officials said the two were in Mogadishu on "an official mission" to assist the Western- backed government of President Sharif Ahmed in "security matters".

Ahmed is struggling to take control of the Horn of Africa nation from the fighters bent on overthrowing his Western-backed government.

Fighters belonging to Al-Shabab and other anti- government groups have in the past few months taken control of swathes of southern and central Somalia and have boxed in government troops and the African Union peacekeeping forces into a few blocks of Mogadishu.

Ted Dagne, a specialist in African affairs who is with the Congressional Research Service, said as many as 22,000 civilians have been killed and 1.1 million displaced in the past two years, largely in south-central Somalia. About 476,000 have fled to other countries, he added.

Fighting last Sunday alone had left at least 11 people dead, residents and officials said.

Witnesses and Somali government officials said the 4,300-strong AU peacekeeping force was visible on the streets of Mogadishu on Sunday. Their main role is to help government troops battle rebel fighters as they advance into northern Mogadishu.

In his speech in Accra, Ghana, US President Barack Obama raised the humanitarian situation in Darfur, Sudan, and the issue of terrorism in Somalia. Obama's address was widely seen as his administration's policy position on Africa. Obama called on the world community to assist in ending what he called the humanitarian crisis in Darfur and the problem of terrorism in Somalia. He added that if the world community did not deal with these crises they could get out of hand and spread to other regions.