By Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, Sept. 30/0ct. 1, 2011

NAIROBI, Kenya — Intense fighting erupted along the Kenya-Somalia border on Friday as the Shabab militant group tried to take back a slice of strategic territory from militias allied with the Somali government. At the same time, Shabab fighters are breaking up camps for victims of Somalia’s famine, sending tens of thousands of starving people straight back into drought-stricken areas.

The Shabab militants say they will provide enough food to tide people over until the next harvest, expected around January, and some of the people who recently left seemed content with the initial rations of rice, sugar, powdered milk and oil that they had been given. But many aid officials worry that the famine victims are going to soon find themselves in a bleak and barren environment once back in their home villages and that dispersing them will complicate an already strained aid effort.

“This is a nightmare,” said a United Nations official who asked not to be identified because he was criticizing the Shabab and feared reprisals....

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From playground to battleground: children on the frontline in Somalia
By Mohamad Shil, Guardian.co.uk, Sept. 30, 2011

The effects of civil conflict on Somalia's children have been catastrophic, as many youngsters have been forced to fight.