Raped in their own country by foreign soldiers.

[Tallaabo]

Somalia: Sexual Abuse by African Union Soldiers

 

Troop-Contributing Countries, Donors Should Promote Justice for Victims

 

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014EnlargeAMISOM troops patrolling the Zona-K camp for displaced people in Mogadishu's Hodan district in June 2012.©2012 Clar Ni Chonghaile(Nairobi) – Soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have sexually abused and exploited vulnerable Somali women and girls on their bases in Mogadishu, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Troop-contributing countries, the African Union (AU), and donors to AMISOM should urgently address these abuses and strengthen procedures inside Somalia to seek justice.The 71-page report, “‘The Power These Men Have Over Us’: Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by African Union Forces in Somalia,”documents the sexual exploitation and abuse of Somali women and girls on two AMISOM bases in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, since 2013. The AU soldiers, relying on Somali intermediaries, have used a range of tactics, including humanitarian aid, to coerce vulnerable women and girls into sexual activity. They have also raped or otherwise sexually assaulted women who were seeking medical assistance or water at AMISOM bases. Human Rights Watch interviewed 21 women and girls who described being raped or sexually exploited by Ugandan or Burundian military personnel serving with the AU forces. “Some African Union soldiers have misused their positions of power to exploit Somalia’s most vulnerable women and girls,” said Liesl Gerntholtz, women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Somalia has many intractable problems, but the Somali and AU leadership could end sexual exploitation and abuse by pressing troop-sending countries to hold abusers responsible.”The AU and AMISOM should foster an organizational culture of “zero tolerance” of unlawful activities on their bases, Human Rights Watch said. They should establish or strengthen instruments and bodies that have responsibility for addressing these abuses, such as conduct and discipline units, and an independent investigative body at the AU level.Human Rights Watch conducted research in Somalia, Uganda, and Burundi. All of the Somali women and girls interviewed were from displaced communities from south-central Somalia.  In addition, Human Rights Watch interviewed over 30 witnesses, foreign observers, military personnel, and officials from troop-contributing countries. The research focused on incidents in Mogadishu, where Ugandan and Burundian soldiers are present and does not preclude the possibility that similar abuses have occurred elsewhere.Years of conflict and famine in Somalia have displaced tens of thousands of women and girls from their communities, and from their family and clan support networks. Without employment options and basic resources, many must rely completely on outside assistance and are forced into exploitative and abusive situations to sustain themselves and their children.The African Union Peace and Security Council deployed the peace support troops known as AMISOM to Somalia in 2007 under a United Nations Security Council mandate, to protect Somali infrastructure and government officials and to contribute to delivering humanitarian assistance. Since then, AMISOM’s mandate, size, and geographical presence have steadily increased. The force draws its military personnel from Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Sierra Leone.Women and girls seeking assistance at AMISOM camps in Mogadishu do so at significant risk, Human Rights Watch found. For instance, in late 2013, Qamar R. (not her real name), 15, went to the Burundian contingent’s base to get medicine for her sick mother. A Somali interpreter told her to follow two Burundian soldiers to get medicine. They took her to a remote area and one of the soldiers raped her. She told Human Rights Watch: “First he ripped off my hijab and then he attacked me.” As she was leaving, the second Burundian soldier gave her US$10.Some soldiers have exploited women’s poverty and lack of food for sex. In May 2013, Kassa D. was introduced to a Somali interpreter at AMISOM’s base camp. “I was worried,” she said. “I wanted to run but I knew that the same thing that brought me here would get me through this – my hunger. I had made a choice and I couldn’t turn back now.” After she had sexual intercourse with a Ugandan soldier, the interpreter paid her $10.The UN secretary-general’s 2003 bulletin on special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse is a groundbreaking policy document for UN peacekeeping missions. It explicitly prohibits peacekeepers from exchanging any money, goods, or services for sex.Evidence suggests that sexual exploitation is not a secret at AMISOM’s Mogadishu bases, Human Rights Watch said. The women and girls have entered the camps through official guarded gates and accessed areas that are in theory protected zones. Two women told Human Rights Watch that the soldiers they had sex with for money gave them official AMISOM badges to facilitate their entry to the base.“The AU military and political leadership needs to do more to prevent, identify, and punish sexual abuse by their troops,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “As another food crisis looms in Mogadishu’s displacement camps, women and girls are once again desperate for food and medicine. They should not have to sell their bodies for their families to survive.”AMISOM soldiers have also subjected women and girls to other abuses and exposed them to serious health risks, Human Rights Watch said. Several women described being slapped and beaten by the soldiers with whom they had sex. Others said that soldiers had refused to wear condoms, passing on sexually transmitted infections.Some of the women interviewed said they did not report their experiences because they feared reprisals from their attackers, the authorities, and the Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabaab, as well as stigma and retribution from their own families. Others told Human Rights Watch they were reluctant to lose their only source of income. As a result, Human Rights Watch could not draw conclusions about the extent of the problem or official levels of involvement.Countries providing troops to AMISOM are primarily responsible for the conduct of their forces in Somalia and have exclusive jurisdiction over their personnel for any criminal offenses.  These countries have, to varying degrees, established procedures to deal with misconduct including deploying legal advisors and military investigators and, in Uganda’s case, temporarily sending a court martial to Somalia to try cases.Yet troop-contributing countries have not provided the necessary resources to investigate allegations or made the investigation and prosecution of sexual exploitation and abuse a priority, Human Rights Watch said. Only one rape case, in which the victim was a child, is before Uganda’s military court in Kampala.AMISOM’s leadership has taken some measures to address sexual and gender-based violence, including drafting a policy on prevention and response to sexual exploitation and abuse, and doing outreach. However, more should be done to ensure that these efforts provide justice for victims, Human Rights Watch said.The AU force, along with the UN and the Somali government, should adopt measures to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse while creating an environment in which women can come forward and report abuses. Troop-contributing countries should reinforce their investigative and prosecutorial capacities inside Somalia. They also should ensure, along with AMISOM and the UN, that survivors receive adequate medical and psychosocial care and protection, particularly during investigations and prosecutions.  International donors, particularly the United Nations, European Union, United States, and United Kingdom should support greater independent oversight of the conduct of AU troops and civilian personnel and ensure that they are not complicit in abuses committed by AMISOM forces, Human Rights Watch said.“The AU can no longer turn a blind eye to the abuses on AMISOM bases, as its undermining the very credibility of the mission,” Gerntholtz said. “Governments supporting AMISOM should work with the AU to end sexual abuse and exploitation of Somali women and girls by their troops, take action against forces contributing to it, and do what they can to prevent further sexual exploitation and abuse of Somali women.”

 

Www.hrw.org

[Dhagax-Tuur]

Like we, Somalis, give a toss!

 

They were probably pimped out by other Somalis, middlemen, trying to make a buck from the very situation.

 

Alle magan.

[Ismahaan]

This is disgusting beyond belief...its not only the rape its the aids they will leave behind. We are humiliated every where include our own soil Subhan Allah. The interpreter is a Somali watching whiles FUFU is raping his own sister..how sad. And the so called Somali leaders are just laughing at this. We are corrupted and Cursed. Everything is about money, where's the dignity?

 

"God cursed the one who pays a bribe, the one who takes it and the mediator between the two". Hadith

 

"And when it is said to them, "Do not cause corruption on the earth," they say, "We are but reformers!" Qur’an 2:11

 

"If one of you sees something wrong, let him change it with his hand; if he cannot, then with his tongue; if he cannot, then with his heart and that is the minimum required by faith". “Hadith

[Tallaabo]

It is just outrageous that those spineless men whose daughters, wives, and mothers are raped with impunity in front of them by the AIDS ridden Bantu mercenaries have the audacity to claim to rule Somaliland.

[Mooge]

you get what you deserve when you have leaders like qoslaye. selling our sea, stealing people's money and destroying our country. AMISOM bantus will do anything because they know they are not accountable to anyone and there is no leadership niyoow.

 

 

[DoctorKenney]

<cite>

@Mooge

said:</cite>

you get what you deserve when you have leaders like qoslaye. selling our sea, stealing people's money and destroying our country. AMISOM bantus will do anything because they know they are not accountable to anyone and there is no leadership niyoow.

 

Do you think there's a way for Parliament to use their powers to render this President a "lame duck" ??

 

Sometimes when a Leader is so bad at his job, Parliament uses their power to strip him of his powers completely.....so that he becomes President in name only.

 

I know that's what happened to the Mayor of Toronto Rob Ford. He kept smoking drugs on the job so the City Council removed him of his power

[Tallaabo]

<cite>

@DoctorKenney

said:</cite>

Do you think there's a way for Parliament to use their powers to render this President a "lame duck" ??

 

Sometimes when a Leader is so bad at his job, Parliament uses their power to strip him of his powers completely.....so that he becomes President in name only.

 

I know that's what happened to the Mayor of Toronto Rob Ford. He kept smoking drugs on the job so the City Council removed him of his power

No they can't do that as they will be assassinated one by one before any vote takes place.

[malistar2012]

More Garbage coming from Kenya The Land of NGO's

 

Kenya must take lead in gifting ultimate solution to Somalia By Makau Mutua Updated Sunday, February 2nd 2014 at 00:00 GMT +3 Share this story: By Makau Mutua Twitter@makaumutua There comes a time when you’ve got to save your neighbour from himself. For, if you don’t, you might be damned with him. Methinks it’s time Kenya thought boldly – and compassionately – about the mess that’s Somalia. One of the options – bold and compassionate – of salvaging a seemingly irredeemable and terminally dysfunctional state is to move in and take it up. Can Somalia be saved as a single state as we know it? Perhaps not. But the bold and compassionate move to save Somalia should be a Kenya-only burden – the contiguous states should jump in and take their own slices. Let’s remember this – there’s nothing “sacred” about post-colonial states that imperialists made up just over a century ago. Some countries should’ve a claim to statehood. That’s why they should be combined with other, more viable, states. Somalia falls in that column because it’s shown itself incapable of self-governance. The Federal Government of Somalia – the current attempt by the AU and the West to resurrect “humpty dumpty” – has all the marks of illegitimacy. It can hardly hold any territory in Somalia on its own. Nor does its writ extend beyond several neighbourhoods in Mogadishu. It’s nonsense on stilts. Just because a state was established long ago, doesn’t mean it should continue to exist – especially as a fiction of the imagination. As a state, Somalia is merely a romantic idea, nothing more. It’s an unworkable, unviable, and destabilising concoction – a total charade. Already, “ Somalia” is hopelessly divided. Its own inhabitants have “disappeared” it as a single state. The Federal Government controls Mogadishu, but then there’s Puntland, Somaliland, and Jubaland. There’s no realistic expectation that all these little enclaves can cohere into one viable state. Either the international community recognises each of these statelets as sovereign, or it allows neighbouring states to absorb them. States can only exist where the inhabitants exhibit a will to form a political community. Absent such a patriotic commitment, it’s futile for the “international community” to impose statehood on an unwilling populace. It’s an unimaginative solution to a modern paradox. Not all states are, or should be, permanent per se, and nor should they be so treated. In 1963, the OAU – now the AU – adopted the doctrine of uti possidetis, which is Latin for “as you possess”. It provided that colonial borders were inviolable and had to be treated as “sacred” after decolonisation. It essentially froze in place colonial maps even those that didn’t make sense. Newly independent African states feared that re-opening colonial borders would undo them. European cartographers didn’t know what they were doing – they only sought chunks of land to exploit. We were stuck with the silly maps after the Europeans departed. Africans have redrawn some of these crazy maps. Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia. South Sudan forced a divorce from Sudan.This brings me to my central thesis – why Kenya should permanently save Somalia. The most compelling reason is the security and viability of Kenya. Of all the countries in the Horn of Africa, Kenya is imperiled the most by a rogue and ungoverned “ Somalia”. Yet Kenya is the unquestioned and indispensable anchor state in the region. As Kenya goes, so does the rest of the region. Kenya doesn’t face any rival or existential threat from any other source except “ Somalia”. That’s because Kenya is Somalia’s economic lifeblood. There’s a real existential symbiosis between Kenya and Somalia. It’s fact Somalia is a haven for terrorists, extremists, weapons trafficking, and other evils. We leave Somalia alone at our own peril. Where do Somalis run to when there’s trouble in Somalia? Kenya is the country of refuge. Think of Dadaab Refugee Camp – now the largest refugee camp in the world. It’s also Kenya’s fourth largest city. I don’t see those refugees ever going back to Somalia. Mark my words – they will eventually become Kenyans. And that’s not a bad thing. I know that some xenophobic Kenyans may object – thinking that Somalis would dominate Kenya. But what’s wrong if those Somalis become Kenyans?

Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000103699

[malistar2012]

The most interesting part of the UN Human Rights Watch Monitor Article is time of Published , While

the Gov and ally forces are in the midst of defeating Alshabaab huge battle are ongoing ?

 

what good propaganda for Alshabaab recruitment and boost kkkk

 

[Tallaabo]

Your women are being raped with impunity and here instead of expressing outrage you are calling the report from such a reputable organisation a propaganda. And also you want us to take the words of the robber-in-chief of Koonfuria and his mafia inner circle as a quranic truth!! You are one hell of a deluded man.

[burahadeer]

they depend on these Africans for everything,how else as delusional as its could they dare tell oil COs not to sign contracts with Somaliland...ofc at the expense of these poor women,at the expense of territory claiming by Kenya and more. Won't be able to complain lest they be dragged to jail.For good or bad Mogadishu under full occupation.

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

This is truly disturbing. May Allah ease the pain of these young women.

[CidanSultan]

This is what I refer to daily on this forum and this Malister while he battles alshabab in his head his own sister is getting taken advantage of behind the so called villa somalia. These people are without blood. Alshabab is not going anywhere and alshabab have said they will not stop any struggle until all foreign soldiers leave while Malister takes joy in the fact this his sister is being sexually abused by some guy from Burundi. Who probably carried aids. Walahi you people make me sick and this is what the slaves have become. Happy and content with their own servitude and occupation.

 

All foreign soldiers should leave somalia. This so called government must be dissolved and the clans must be called together to talk. Alshabab should stop killing innocent people and the somali people must be allowed to run their own affairs.

 

Malister I bet if the au sexually abused your mom you wouldn't be saying the same thing you hypocrite.

[DoctorKenney]

CidanSultan, I've been saying over and over that this stupid President Hassan Sheikh should spend his time lobbying the European Union and the United States to supply his Army directly with body-armor and weapons and helicopters, etc.

 

We don't need these Africans fighting on behalf of Somalia. Somalis can do it themselves, we just need the funding and the equipment and the training. These xayawan AU Soldiers hide behind their tanks while the Somali soldiers do most of the real fighting. Why not just cut out the middle-man and supply Somalia with the funding and equipment directly.

 

That's something this idiotic President should have focused on. Rebuilding the Army....Instead of wasting his time attending Sisi's inauguration in Egypt or staying at 5 Star Hotels in Qatar.

[CidanSultan]

Doctor Kennedy with all due respect the somali army does not do all the fighting that's a fact they do little to no fighting. The au does most of the fighting. The so called army has not been able to control one inch of territory without the au. They have become subsurvient to the au. These bandits once they enter a new area the first thing they do is commit crimes and extortion rackets like checkpoints.

 

Malister this so called nationalist argued " if the au didn't rape the women someone else would have" this human piece of sh!t argues against alshabab and supports the raping of somali women by au forces in his own city.

 

Let's be honoust here you people have no heart. Alshabab is nationalist religious movement the islamic courts unions was the same. They both staunchly supported the removal of foreign soldiers from somalia. America removed the islamic courts union who brought peace, stability and Islam to somalia yet they are a terrorist organisation while the au forces paid for by the United States and our enemies the Kenyans and Ethiopians kill Somalis and rape or pimp them out.

 

Hag needs to fix up. In Kenya the d block are subservient to the Kenyans and the same is going on in their.

 

Walahi you people are the shame of the somali race. Shame....shame...shame.