Nairobi  -  Somalia is headed for a failure of seasonal rains this month that will threaten already limited water and food supplies and further endanger a population enduring a civil war, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned Wednesday.

"In Somalia, natural disasters and waves of fighting seem to follow one after the other. And that has created the humanitarian crisis before us," said Pascal Hundt, head of the ICRC's delegation for Somalia.

"People are being pushed to the very limits of their endurance."

A 17-year civil war intensified over the last 18 months as the internationally-backed transitional government struggled to contain an Iraq-style insurgency that has often killed civilians on the streets of the capital Mogadishu.

The violence has uprooted some 700,000 from Mogadishu, who have mostly settled in makeshift camps outside the city.

Months of drought followed by dramatic flooding in 2006 put hundreds of thousands of people around the Horn of Africa country at risk of disease and starvation.

The ICRC has since January been delivering some 2.3 million litres of water to about 470,000 people in 400 different locations, as well as a range of other relief supplies.

The agency called on the country's warring parties to adhere to international humanitarian law and avoid civilian casualties in military operations, which often take place on busy streets. Both the Ethiopian-backed government troops and the Islamic insurgents have been accused of targeting Somalis.

Somalia was plunged into anarchy after the 1991 toppling of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, which sparked a brutal civil war. (dpa)