Mogadishu, (insidesomalia.org)-Member of Somalia's interim parliament, led by Second Deputy Speaker Osman Elmi Boqorre, toured through a string of makeshift refugee camps in the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu Saturday, officials said.

The lawmakers were accompanied by Lower Shabelle Governor Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur as they visited families displaced by war.

Most of the families fled Mogadishu since the beginning of 2007 as an insurgency erupted following the arrival of Ethiopian troops backing the country's weak interim government.

"The Parliament should have come here before," Deputy Speaker Boqorre told a crowd.

He said that he personally saw what Somali and international media had been reporting for more than one year.

"We saw some refugee camps that have yet to receive food assistance," Boqorre said, describing his experience.

This is the first time a senior government official has visited the road linking Mogadishu-to-Afgoye, where an estimated 250,000 displaced people now call home.

Somalia has seen nothing but violence, displacement and food shortage since Ethiopian troops captured Mogadishu from Islamic Courts rulers, who had pacified the war-wracked capital and returned the rule of law for six months prior to the December 2006 invasion.

Source: Garowe Online

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