MOGADISHU, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Twenty Somali children have died of measles in a village in Middle Shabelle region north of the Somali capital Mogadishu, a local Elder said Sunday.

Speaking from Jawhar, the provincial capital of the region, Elder Sheik Ali Yusuf said that the 20 children died in the past 24 hours in Jabey villages west of Jawhar where he came to meet with local administration and aid agencies about the outbreak of the disease in the village.

Yusuf said that the village did not have any health facility or health workers to help contain the diseases for which some other children are sick with.

"The children who died of the disease are under the age of five and some more children are infected with measles in the village," Yusuf said.

Many aid agencies in the Middle Shabelle region,90 km north of the Somalia capital Mogadishu, have withdrawn their staff and closed their offices in the region which has been in rebel hands for the past two months.

Yusuf told local media if urgent help is not delivered to those people many more children will die of the outbreak of the disease which he said "was spreading like a wildfire."

Somali health infrastructure has collapsed with the overthrow of the former Somali ruler Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991.

Local and International aid agencies, most of whom have now stopped their operations, provided much of the meager health services for the internally displaced people.

Source: Xinhua