African Union and Somali government troops have stepped up their assault on al Shabaab militants.
Hundreds of families have been forced to flee their homes and head for the city centre.
The AU force, which already controls most of the capital, is trying to advance through the Afgoye corridor.
The corridor is believed to house the largest concentration of internally displaced people in the world, stretches 30km northwest of Mogadishu to the al Shabaab stronghold of Afgoye.
The troops seized part of Tre Disho village, 13km from the capital.
Burundian troops with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have been advancing from Tre Disho towards Elasha and Afgoye
The troops are meeting resistance from al-Qaeda linked al Shabaab militants.
Al Shabaab has waged a five-year campaign to topple Somalia's Western-backed government.
It has imposed its harsh interpretation of sharia, Islamic law, on a country that has been mired in violence for the last two decades.
Al Shabaab still controls swathes of central and southern Somalia.
It is being gradually squeezed out of its strongholds by Kenyan and Ethiopian troops who have launched their own incursions into Somalia, and is being pushed out of Mogadishu by AU forces.
Civilians fleeing the fighting hope to find safety in central Mogadishu.
