The UN refugee agency said on Friday about 96,000 Somalis have been displaced by the latest fighting in the bullet-riddled Mogadishu which began last month in the Horn of Africa nation.

In a statement issued in Nairobi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the displacement was growing rapidly as the fighting rages in the restive capital.

"The number of Somalis forced from their homes in Mogadishu has now topped 96,000 since the start of fighting between government forces and armed opposition groups on May 8," the UNHCR said in the statement.

"Out of this latest total of displaced, an estimated 35,000 are still in the city, looking for shelter in more secure areas because they have no means to leave," it said.

Intense fighting between the government and the opposition Al- Shabaab and Hezbul Islam (Islamic Party) groups erupted in several north-west areas of Mogadishu on May 8.

UNHCR said some 26,000 have managed to flee to makeshift sites in the so-called Afgooye corridor about 30 km south-east of Mogadishu, joining 400,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) already sheltering there.

The remaining 35,000 have fled to other parts of Somalia. Some of them are also making their way towards neighboring countries, said the UN agency.

According to UNHCR's local partners in Somalia, some 2,000 people have indicated that they plan to cross the border into Kenya. "More than a thousand said they are ready to risk their lives and make the perilous journey with smugglers across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. Some 600 people told our local partners they were heading towards Ethiopia," it said.

The UN Security Council including the Africa Union and Somalia neighbors have condemned the recent resurgence in fighting in the Horn of Africa nation, and called for the end of all hostilities.

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member UN SC body also authorized an extension of the mandate of the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, known as AMISOM, until Jan. 31, 2010.

In neighboring Kenya, UNHCR said the number of new arrivals from Somalia spiked from an average of 100 a day to nearly 200 over the past week.

Since the beginning of the year, almost 32,000 people have crossed into Kenya, bringing the total number of Somali refugees in the country to more than 297,000.

"We continue to rush aid to the displaced in Somalia. UNHCR's local partners have just completed the first phase of an aid distribution south of Mogadishu," it said.

"Deliveries of UNHCR aid items began on May 26 and 12,600 people received plastic sheeting, sleeping mats, kitchen sets, blankets, jerry cans and sanitary pads in Kah Shiqal area of southern Mogadishu," it said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2009)