Berlin - Kenyan teenager Martin Thuo, one of 52 young people from war-torn regions of Africa, sits at a computer at the "Zwischenstation" (inter-station) in Berlin's northern district of Wedding.

The 15-year-old arrived in the German capital from an African refugee camp four months ago, following the traumatic loss of his closest relatives, killed in the violence that rocked Kenya in the early part of 2008.

"Someone I met at the refugee camp brought me to Germany," the teenager said. "Now I am trying to forget the past and begin a new life here in Berlin."

"I go to a school in Berlin and I'm trying to pick up German as quickly as possible, but it's not easy," Thuo murmured in English.

"Eventually I would like to go to university here," the young Kenyan added.

Thomas Willmann, one of a team of social workers employed by the Zwischenstation, said scores of young African refugees, aged between 15 and 22, are arriving in Berlin after escaping their troubled homelands.

"Earlier, most of the arrivals were from Angola, China, Vietnam, Mongolia, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, or from the countries of eastern Europe following the collapse of communism," Willmann said.

"Now, increasingly, they come from countries in West Africa - from Senegal, Cameroon, Guinea and also from Kenya," the social worker added.

The role of the Zwischenstation is to ensure people learn German and receive education or formative job training, according to Willmann.

"Some of the young people never went to school in Africa. Others, forced to serve as 'child soldiers' in war zones, arrived in Germany in a badly traumatised state," Willmann said.

"They need extra support," the trained psychologist added.

By a quirk of history, many of Wedding's streets are named after African regions. They date back to the 1890s, when Germany was flexing its colonial muscle in parts of Africa.

The bustling district includes street names such as Ghana, Congo, Togo and Senegal Street, all linked by the arterial African Road.

The residents, it seems, have followed the street names. "It's really only in the past decade that an increasing number of Africans have settled in Wedding," Willmann pointed out.

Today, 18,288 Africans are registered in Berlin, 2475 of them in the Wedding district. But these figures don't include a sizeable number of German passport holders of African origin.

A traditional working-class district, Wedding now teems with migrants from Turkey, the Palestinian Territories, Italy, India, Pakistan and from eastern Europe, alongside Africa. Many of them are attracted by the relatively low cost of apartments.

Monsieur Ebeny, a Cameroonian of athletic build, stands 1.83 metres tall behind his shop counter in Cameroon Street, chatting to clients, preferably in French.

He's proud of his shop, which he opened several years ago, selling fish products, vegetable oils, a variety of fruit and African-made cosmetics.

"I like living and working in Wedding. It's one of Berlin's livelier districts, and has become a magnet for Africans," Ebeny said.

African Road, which runs two kilometres, is flooded with so-called Afro shops displaying a bewildering array of vegetables, yams, fruit and plantains.

"Africans gravitate to Wedding because they know they won't be lonely and can count on support," said Assibi Wartenberg. She arrived in Berlin 18 years ago and founded the city's German-Togolese Friendship Association.

"As a black person there's no danger here of my being attacked on account of my colour," Wartenberg recently told Berlin daily Tagesspiegel.

Emmanuel Akakpo, also from Togo, is the owner of Maluma ('Island') Dreams jazz and cocktail bar. There, German and African music fans congregate to dance and listen to international artists.

Akakpo said he first heard about Berlin's African quarter as a schoolboy in Togo.

"I resolved there and then that if I ever got to Berlin I would take a look at it," he recalled. Akakpo ended up settling in Wedding, where he opened Maluma Dreams six years ago. (DPA)