AU forces advance on al Shabaab rebels

A camp for displaced people huddles on the outskirts of Mogadishu.

This is the newest front in a fight against rebel forces in Somalia.

AU and Somali forces are driving forward here against al Shabaab militants.

According to officials from the African Union Mission in Somalia, securing a safe corridor north of the city could help aid to reach some 400,000 people.

The corridor is believed to house the largest concentration of internally displaced people in the world.

The AU mission encouraged people to stay at home and said its troops were avoiding heavily residential areas.

Al Shabaab has waged a bloody five-year campaign to topple Somalia's Western-backed government and impose its harsh interpretation of sharia, Islamic law.

The group still controls areas of central and southern Somalia, but it is being pushed out of Mogadishu by AU forces.

Sarah Sheffer, Reuters