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Somali Girls Raped by AU Troops: HRW
9-10-2014
A leading international human rights group has revealed that vulnerable Somali girls, as young as 12, have been regularly raped by internationally-funded African Union troops in the volatile poor horn-of-Africa country.
“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 in a statement published on the group’s site.
“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 report, issued on Monday, September 8, said that African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in war-torn and impoverished Somalia have raped women and girls seeking medical aid or water from their bases in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.
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.
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.
Recalling her miserable life with no food or medicine, one girl, 15, told HRW about being raped after she 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.
“First he ripped off my hijab and then he attacked me,” Qamar R. (not her real name) told HRW.
As she was leaving, the second Burundian soldier gave her US$10.
Responsibility
The troops had "misused" their power over women fleeing violence and poverty, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
“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.”
The rights group held countries providing troops to AMISOM as primarily responsible for the conduct of their forces in Somalia who have exclusive jurisdiction over their personnel for any criminal offenses.
Only one rape case, in which the victim was a child, is before Uganda's military court in Kampala, it added.
"Some Amisom soldiers have used humanitarian assistance, provided by the mission, to coerce vulnerable women and girls into sexual activity," HRW said.
"A number of the women and girls interviewed for this report said that they were initially approached for sex in return for money or raped while seeking medical assistance and water on the Amisom bases, particularly the Burundian contingent's base."
Moreover, it urged international donors, particularly the United Nations, European Union, United States, and United Kingdom to support greater independent oversight of the conduct of AU troops and civilian personnel.
“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.”
The AU force was deployed in 2007, with most of its troops coming from Uganda and Burundi.
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