Somalia is 'worst refugee crisis'

Stephanie Bunker, spokeswoman for UN relief coordinator John Holmes, said at least 350,000 people had fled fighting in Mogadishu since February.

There is also concern for those trapped in the city, where more than 600 have died from acute diarrhoea and cholera.

A BBC correspondent says gunfire has stopped for the first time in 10 days.

AFP news agency is reporting that Ethiopians and government troops are moving house-to-house in northern districts arresting suspected insurgents.

However, the city's Coca-Cola factory, opened in 2004, was looted overnight by gunmen in 12 trucks.

"Our offices were broken into and all computers looted. We had supplies of sugar that were supposed to last the whole year - they were also looted," manager Bashir Mohamed Araye told Reuters news agency.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi said his forces were in control of the capital and the worst of the fighting was now over.

Bureaucracy charge

The BBC's Farhia Ali says the sound of mortars and shelling had stopped on Friday morning.

People were venturing down to the central Bakara market area to check on their businesses and to see if the buildings were still standing, she said.

Meanwhile, there are reports that insurgents are leaving northern districts, captured by Ethiopian troops on Thursday.

"All men are fleeing from the houses because the Ethiopian forces are arresting them," Shamso Nur told AFP.

Another witness said that bodies were being collected from the streets for burial.

The UN had requested that fighting ceased so that aid could be brought in.

Aid is ready and waiting to be delivered to the city, but it cannot be brought in while the fighting is still going on, it says.

'Charged for shade'

Ms Bunker said displacements in Somali had topped those in Iraq, Darfur and Sri Lanka.

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