The air raids Trump administration in Somalia are on the rise again and civilians pay the price

In the first seven months of 2020, Trump administration has brought more air strikes in Somalia were in the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama is performed in combination. This year alone, US Africa Command (AFRICOM) 43 air strikes in Somalia has recognized compared to 42 from 2007 to 2017. It is as AFRICOM embraces transparency, the issuance of the second quarter “civilian casualties Assessment” The report confirms 28 July that a US raid near the town of Jilib killed a civilian woman in 2020, on February 2 and injuring three members of her family. The finding supported a report by Amnesty International in March that the air raid Nurto Kusow Omar Abukar killed 18 and injured her two younger sisters and grandmother. The target was a member of al-Shabab, an extremist group linked to Al Qaeda. Strikes are to increase the part of a military security campaign in the long run in Somalia by al Shabaab deteriorated and, to a lesser extent, the Islamic state. The terrorist group Al-Qaeda-aligned has been active in Somalia since 2006, the influence operates in many areas of the country, and after AFRICOM remains “resilient”, despite billions of dollars in US military and humanitarian aid, ground operations involving Somali forces and US advisors and five years in airstrikes record numbers. The strike on 2 February occurred when the US attacks – after the attack by Al Shabaab on US military base in Manda Bay, Kenya, that killed a US soldier and two employees of the Defense Department – They were carried out in a frantic speed, average air every two or three days to beat. “[W] e will prosecute those responsible for this attack and al-Shabaab, who seek to harm Americans and US interests,” the commander General AFRICOM Stephen Townsend announced in January, but experts say the civilians this mentality put at risk. “At that time, he said General Townsend verfolgen’diejenigen wurden, unnachgiebig, which is carried out the attack, and that precipitate a number of civilians were injured and killed, including the only approved AFRICOM in individual cases “Brian Castner, crisis counselor for weapons and military operations Amnesty international said time. “We saw the same thing after the massive truck bombing in [Somalia’s capital] Mogadishu in 2017 AFRICOM moves too fast and civilians pay the price.” In early COVID-19 in a pandemic, the United Nations Secretary, Antonio Guterres repeatedly for a global ceasefire. “The anger of the war madness virus is,” he said in March. While American officials Universal elderly cease-fire was approved, the US attacks have continued nonetheless in the Horn of Africa and elsewhere. The recent air strike the United States in Somalia occurred on July 29, “AFRICOM it was to respond slowly at first to the pandemic, with its heavy air raids against al Shabaab continues in mid-May. However, we will see a break of seven weeks which have been gradually lifted on July 9, “said Chris Woods, director of Airwars to monitor a patent Airstrike British-based group. “It is noteworthy that Al Shabaab has also continued to mount terrorist attacks throughout Somalia initial block.” AFRICOM did not mention any calls as a reason for the ceasefire to the truce but in strikes. “A variety of factors weigh if a strike takes place, including the rate of corporate partners, identifying goals and opportunities and objectives of opportunities to get involved,” AFRICOM spokesman John Manley told TIME. “Even the weather is and if we can make striking a major impact on the operation.” However, US officials have support for a global ceasefire proposed Guterres’ in the middle of the espresso pandemic. “It would be phenomenal if he could be a ceasefire” Tibor Nagy, the top Africa official policy of the Foreign Ministry, told TIME this spring, but points out that some belligerents would be “opportunistic and use the pandemic to advance their violent agendas “. Similarly, a high official Government Trump, who spoke on condition of anonymity, repeated appeals and amplifies Guterres. “We hope people will keep the Secretary-General and other leaders to call for a ceasefire,” said period, despite the fact that the administration has not only failed to respect the ceasefire – to Afghanistan ‘ Iraq – but it has gone even in the face of the pandemic, running, combined to the number of attacks in Somalia by both the former president. Despite the slowdown of AFRICOM air strikes will be recorded a record number of air strikes in Somalia for the sixth consecutive time at USA ready. “If you look to 2019 strikes, the frequency is similar at this point,” said spokesman John Manley. Last year, the administration has brought Trump 63 air strikes in Somalia, a historic high. To continue to defeat the strike because of the failure of the United States and its Somali allies and African Union Shabaab, despite nearly a decade of military operations. A report of the Inspector General of the Ministry of Defense issued on July 16, said that AFRICOM Al Shabaab admits his ability to maintain conduct hit-and-run attacks, ambushes and improvised explosive devices (IED) operations, and “remains adaptable, flexible and able US partner interests in Somalia and East Africa mentality.” AFRICOM began in 2007, hundreds of aircraft and ground attacks in Somalia, but the command must kill five civilians in three separate attacks in the last 13 years hospitalized. An Amnesty International study found that only nine killed in this air attack 21 civilians and 11 others were injured. After the signs Airwars that as many as 15 Somali civilians by US strikes in 2020 alone were killed. Airwars – whose database contains local and international news, photos, videos, posts, social media, mapping and geolocation, and other data for each note of the air and ground action of the United States in Somalia – argues that the United States from 72 to 145 civilian attacks they have been killed since 2007 AFRICOM Townsend, who previously combined joint Task force ordered – intrinsic Resolve operation, American attempt to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, joined loudly in this return the statements conflicted about civilian casualties. “I challenge anyone to a more precise air campaign in the history of the war to find,” he wrote in an opinion piece of foreign policy in 2017. In the same year, New York Times Magazine a survey of nearly 150 coalition air attacks targeting US-led ISIS in Iraq found that one called the coalition strikes on civilian casualties 5, a rate more than 31 times that have recognized the coalition. “Our report also provides a consistent failure of the coalition revealed pretensions to properly investigate or keep accounts making it possible to investigate all claims,” ​​the journalists Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal wrote. The command is close to killing as admitted 1,400 civilians in this campaign. Airwars says the true toll could be as high as 13,135. “We are working hard to prevent civilians being injured or killed during these operations,” said Townsend at the release of civilian victims of AFRICOM assessment on July 28, “We are obliged to keep civilian casualties to a minimum and we will continue to accurately assess all charges . “in 2019, researchers at Columbia Law School Institute for human rights and the center for civilians in conflict have taken a civilian victim workshop with AFRICOM personnel. A review of the civil control of the victim assessment process that discovered 2016-2019 failed to lead AFRICOM its air attacks even one interview with civilian witnesses. Nothing has changed in the time since. “We interviewed witnesses or victims,” ​​the spokesman John Manley told TIME. “The fact that AFRICOM interviewed again at this time no witnesses or survivors of them striking is deeply disappointing,” said Priyanka Motaparthy Columbia Law School Institute for Human Rights. “By not interview the person in question, have decided not to look for valuable information about the impact of their operations in Somalia, despite human rights groups have called to carry out these interviews for years.” A new Pentagon report on bonuses for death, injury and property damage in America’s wars, states that no assistance or compensation to Somali victims of the attacks of the United States provided Show. “The Congress has expressly Defense to make unauthorized payments to families for their losses, and international law requires reparation when the strike was illegal,” said Daphne Eviatar, director of security with human rights at Amnesty International USA. “It ‘s time to develop the United States a better and more humane response to the damage it causes -. And to do this to avoid damage,” Amnesty Brian Castner fears that the slowdown caused in the air by strikes season of Somalia rains could soon evaporate and noncombatants have to pay the price. “The fact that civilians continue to die, sometimes unfairly, and not a single family of the victims has been compensated, it means that after 13 years, but the US government has not figured out how a war to fight on the needs gives priority to people who claim to defend, “he said at the time. “If the US government does not fulfill its obligations to civilians, while a distant war to fight air attacks, you need to rethink your methods.” Image copyright
Farah Abdi Warsameh AP