国际英语新闻：Somalia fighting kills at least 80 civilians, says UN

GENEVA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- At least 80 civilians died and more than 100 others were wounded last week after fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, the United Nations said on Friday.

    At least 110 wounded people were admitted to two main surgical referral hospitals in Mogadishu in three days, said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

    The number of those wounded is suspected to be higher as reports are so far unavailable from other hospitals and clinics in Mogadishu, Byrs told a news briefing in Geneva.

    According to OCHA, an estimated 15,000 people were displaced following the fighting, some moved to safer districts within the Mogadishu city, while others fled to the Afgooye corridor, joining more than 300,000 internally displaced persons.

    Some 3.2 million people, or 43 percent of Somalia's entire population, are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, and the country is short of 231 million U.S. dollars out of 646 million U.S. dollars required to cover the needs of the people.

    The situation has also been exacerbated by drought and high food prices, coupled with the collapse of the Somali currency and continuing instability.