A/HRC/21/36 hospitals and maternal and child health facilities and services. Al-Shabaab has reportedly also destroyed water wells and other related facilities. 18. Space for humanitarian operations in southern and central Somalia has been limited by Al-Shabaab, and national and international staff have been threatened, abducted and killed. In parts of southern and central Somalia, the denial of access to humanitarian assistance by insurgents has deprived inhabitants of food and nutrition. This situation led the United Nations and international non-governmental organizations to withdraw almost all their international staff from the area and to reduce operations, thereby negatively affecting the enjoyment of social and economic rights of the Somali population, which heavily depends on international assistance. In the light of the improved security situation, however, in 2012, UNPOS commenced redeploying international and national staff to Somalia. 19. Al-Shabaab has also allegedly imposed taxation on the population under its control, which has increased hardship. According to AMISOM, more than 500 sacks of relief food that had been confiscated by Al-Shabaab were recovered from an Al-Shabaab training camp in July 2012. 20. An estimated 1 million Somalis have sought refuge in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Yemen, while another 1.5 million are internally displaced. A significant number of people have reportedly been displaced by clashes between the “Somaliland” security forces and the Sool, Sanaag and Cayn militia in the disputed region on the border between “Somaliland” and “Puntland”. In this way, a third of the estimated population of 7.5 million in Somalia lives in forced displacement. 21. In 2011, there was a massive influx into Mogadishu of people who were displaced by the conflict and famine in southern and central Somalia. Most reside in settlements with limited access to shelter, water, sanitation and health services. Poor living conditions combined with malnutrition have led to outbreaks of such diseases as cholera and polio. The diversion of humanitarian aid by agents of the Transitional Federal Government and allied militia members has also been reported. This has particularly affected the right to food of internally displaced persons in Mogadishu. A pattern of systematic extortion at checkpoints manned by armed forces in areas under control of the Government and allied militias has also been alleged. 22. There is an urgent need for a comprehensive policy on displaced persons and a comprehensive approach to urban poverty to improve the living conditions for the internally displaced and local residents alike. The protracted conflict, combined with a weak land tenure system, has impeded durable solutions to displacement. Earlier in 2012 year, long-term internally displaced persons were forcibly evicted from public buildings in Mogadishu, thus creating a homeless population in the capital. It is estimated that evictions in Mogadishu ordered by the Government and by private landlords account for 12 per cent of all displacement. 23. Violence and discrimination against women is rife, including a pattern of forced marriages and acts of sexual slavery of underage girls with Al-Shabaab fighters, which was documented by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (A/66/657-S/2012/33). Freedoms previously enjoyed by women in Somali culture have been curtailed, which has severely restricted women’s freedom of movement and employment opportunities. 24. Reports were received of persistent patterns of conflict-related sexual violence, in particular rape of women and girls in camps for the internally displaced, allegedly committed by State agents and allied militia members, and criminal rape by individuals as a result of the general conditions of insecurity in the camps. In total, some 20 cases of sexual violence per day were reported to non-governmental organizations and women’s 6