Mogadishu  - Almost 9,500 Somali civilians have been killed since early 2007 as the government battles a bloody insurgency, a human rights body said Tuesday.

Ali Sheikh Yasen, deputy chairman of the Mogadishu-based Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that a total of 9,474 civilians had died in the insurgency, with 838 deaths coming since June.

Almost daily battles have blighted the Horn of Africa nation since Ethiopian troops invaded in 2006 to kick out the Islamist regime and put the transitional federal government back in power.

Islamist insurgents have since fought back, taking over the key port town of Kismayo and hammering Ethiopian, government and African Union peacekeeping troops.

Two AU peacekeepers from Uganda died on Sunday and Monday in attacks.

However, civilians have suffered the most, usually perishing as Ethiopian and government forces exchange fire with insurgents in heavily populated areas.

Around one million civilians have fled Mogadishu, and the UN says that 3.2 million Somalis - 43 per cent of the total population - are in need of urgent food assistance.

Yasen said that 12,000 fled the fighting in Kismayo, while 65,000 others fled clashes in other areas since June.

Somalia has been plagued by chaos and clan-based civil war since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991. (dpa)