21 Sep 2004 15:48:18 GMT
By C. Bryson Hull
NAIROBI, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Fresh fighting in Somalia cast a shadow over an anti-war rally by the country's top politicians on Tuesday and the United Nations warned the violence was worsening a humanitarian emergency in the south.
Hundreds of Somalis have fled to Kenya this month to escape violence in the volatile south of the country, stirred by warring militias battling for control of the port of Kismayo.
"It is a pity to see there are some people who don't believe that the state of fighting is over," Joseph Nyaga, Kenya's assistant minister of East African and Regional Cooperation, told the rally to mark the U.N.'s International Day of Peace.
Several small peace marches also took place in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
The country disintegrated into anarchy after former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991 as clans pressured by famine and political turmoil launched battles for territory.
For 21 months, Somalis and international mediators in Kenya have laboured to form a new national government. A clan-based parliament last week elected a speaker and is due to elect a president on October 10 of a country ruled by clan militia.
"It will be the first priority of the new Somali parliament to restore peace in the country. The Somali people need peace more than anything else in the world today," parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan told the gathering.
The fighting involves a militia controlled by warlord Mohamed Said Hersi, known as General Morgan, who three weeks ago began advancing on Kismayo, in hopes of taking it back from the rival Juba Valley Alliance (JVA) militia coalition.
Diplomats say the clashes are also stirring up smaller clan disputes, deepening the anarchy around Kismayo, disrupting farming and worsening already existing food shortages.
Several experts working for foreign aid agencies have been evacuated from the Juba Valley north of Kismayo as a security precaution, a U.N. official said.
"We can expect serious famine in the Juba Valley area if the fighting does not stop," said Callum Mclean, head of the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Coordination in Somalia. He said the area was home to 170,000, many of them black Africans, a minority frequently persecuted by the main nomadic clans.
"They have had two years of crop failure and they have had very little recourse to other means of sustaining themselves. Many people may die if the fighting continues to disrupt humanitarian operations," Mclean said.