Angelina Jolie ‘deeply troubled’ by deaths in Somalia

GENEVA - US actress Angelina Jolie said Monday she was concerned by the increasingly heavy impact of conflict in Somalia on civilians.

“I am deeply troubled by the complete and utter disregard for human life in Somalia,” said Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the Geneva-based UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Noting that civilians - particularly in the capital Mogadishu - were facing increasing threats, Jolie called for fighters to stop waging wars in residential areas.

UNHCR has termed Somalia’s situation as “one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today with half the population in urgent need of humanitarian assistance”.

According to the agency’s figures, there are more than 1.4 million Somalis displaced inside the country and some 570,000 live as refugees in neighboring countries.

Somalia has been beset by unrest since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Over 20,000 people have died in an insurgency triggered in early 2007 after Ethiopia invaded and ousted the Islamist regime in charge at the time. Islamist militias now control large swaths of land in the country over which the weak, Western-backed central government has limited authority.