The UN and other aid agencies today warned of an impending humanitarian disaster in the war-torn Somali capital Mogadishu, where more than 320,000 people have reportedly fled their homes and corpses have been left lying in the streets as a cholera epidemic takes hold.

Relief workers say that the city is almost impossible to access amid constant fighting between forces from neighbouring Ethiopia and Islamist insurgents, which has reportedly seen UN workers treated as enemies and aid agencies' aircraft shot at by both sides.

Artillery is repeatedly being used in residential areas and at least 113 civilians have been killed in the last three days of fighting alone, it has been claimed. The UN has appealed for all sides involved in the conflict to let their workers in to treat the impoverished population.

Ethiopian troops were enlisted to help the Somali Government oust Muslim militants from Mogadishu last December, but violence has intensified in the capital in recent months as the troops stayed and continued to battle the Islamists.

More than 1,000 people were reported to have been killed last month, in the heaviest fighting since 1991.

According to the Elman Human Rights Organisation, a Somalian aid agency, at least 113 people have been killed and a minimum of 229 wounded between Wednesday and 2pm today. He said his organisation collated the figures from hospitals, local residents and the number of recorded burials in Mogadishu.

“We condemn both sides of the conflict and call on them to immediately stop the mass massacre in the capital,” Sudan Ali Ahmed, the group's chairman, told the AP news agency.

Eric Laroche, a UN humanitarian coordinator, said he believed hundreds had already died from cholera and diarrhoea and that a large proportion of the population already lacked food and water. The UN today said that 321,000 of the capital's two million population had fled its homes - up from the previous figure of 218,000 given earlier this week.

Warning of a humanitarian catastrophe unless aid agencies were let in, he said: "It is time that we get access to the people in Mogadishu."

Christian Balslev-Olesen, the Somalia representative of Unicef, added that people involved in the conflict had to let aid workers in.

“We are extremely anxious to reach the displaced population especially since most of them are women and children under the age of 14. These are the most vulnerable people in any community,” he said in a statement today.

“And so we reiterate our call to all parties involved in the conflict to do everything within their power to allow us to reach those who need our assistance the most."

More heavy fighting was reported today, with witnesses describing exchanges of machine gun fire and mortar shells, taking an unknown number of casualties.

Yesterday, the fighting was confirmed to have claimed the lives of at least nine civilians and wounded several others after mortar shells landed at a bus station in southern Mogadishu.

Ethiopian forces also reportedly worsened the situation by blocking a key road after a suspected suicide bomber attacked their base south of the capital, trapping fleeing civilians.

Before the most recent escalation, Ethiopian troops had started to withdraw from Mogadishu to be replaced by an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force. However, the AU says only 1,200 troops of the 8,000 it needs have so far been able to deploy. The Somalian Government has not had complete authority over security in the country for 16 years.

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