By Rosalia Amungo (KBC)

The Somalia government has launched the first phase of the new E-passport.

The passport is a technological advancement for security matters.

Speaking during the luncheon the general manager for the Just Solutions passport agency company Stephen Robert says that the E-passport, which is accompanied by an E-ID, will protect individual security for its citizens as well as expanding its economy.

Somalia deputy for foreign Affairs minister Hassan Ahmed Jama says that the E-passport will assist in identifying criminals at border points and allow them travel without restrictions all over the world.

At least 30 children have died of watery diarrhea in settlements around Jawhar 90 km (55 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu, the main town of Middle Shabelle province, southern Somalia.

Reports from Jawhar indicate that in this week alone 30 children under the age five have died of the diarrhea related diseases.

Dr. Abdullahi Hussein Moalim, the director of Jawhar hospital, has told Shabelle by the phone on Thursday that many more children were gravely ill of the disease, calling on the international relief agencies to bring medical supplies into the area immediately.

More than 350 cholera patients have been placed in the Inter-SOS hospital in Jawhar in the past weeks.

Doctors in Middle and Lower Shabelle provinces say the number of water diarrhea related deaths is looming 200 as people are forces to use contaminated water from the flood swamps and river.

More than 50 children are believed to have died in Middle Shabelle province alone in the past two weeks, doctors say.

The torrential rains and floods in southern and central of the country last year have had the worst impact on the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people rendered homeless by the floods.

A heavy exchange of gunfire is continuing in Afgoye about 30 km (18 miles) south of the capital.

Reports say government troops in the area and local militias have clashed with the reasons unclear.

At least two people, one civilian and a militiaman, were killed in the skirmishes.

This is the first gun battle between government forces and local militiamen since the interim government moved to the capital early last month.