The U.N. refugee agency says about 90,000 Somalis who fled the fighting in Mogadishu earlier this year have returned home.
That represents about one-quarter of the nearly 400,000 who left.
An agency spokesman Friday said that living conditions in the Somali capital remain difficult. The city is without running water and electricity, and sanitation is major concern as garbage remains uncollected in many neighborhoods.
He added many of the returnees have gone to areas such as Waberi, Xamar, Jab-Jab and Medina that were not affected by the fighting between insurgents and forces of the transitional government.
The U.N. official said other Mogadishu residents are reluctant to return home, either out of fear or because they have nowhere to live.
The refugee agency says U.N. representatives met with government officials Tuesday to discuss ways of getting aid to the needy. It says the sides discussed a one-time aid package that would help 300,000 people re-settle in Mogadishu.
Attacks on government officials and other acts of violence continue in the capital despite the interim government's recent claim of victory over insurgents.
The government is hoping to organize a national reconciliation conference in Mogadishu in mid-June. Somalia has endured 16 years of war and chaos since the last central government was overthrown in 1991.
