US government urged not to abandon civilian victims of its air strikes without compensation after the planned troop withdrawal from the Horn of Africa nation.
In a statement, Amnesty International called on US to settle the collateral damage caused by its airstrikes against al-Shabaab in Somalia.
“Whether or not US ground troops leave Somalia, AFRICOM must immediately implement a strategy to ensure that it does not abandon any progress made towards accountability for US military actions – including their reporting on civilian casualty allegations,” Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa said.
The US this week announced that troops will be removed from the Horn of Africa country by January 2021.
Deprose said regardless of having boots on the ground or not, AFRICOM still must ensure justice and reparation for the civilian victims of violations of international humanitarian law and their families.
Amnesty emphasised that “if air strikes continue, AFRICOM must ensure they take all feasible precautions to spare civilians.”
Previously, Amnesty International investigated nine US strikes in Lower Shabelle, Galgudud and Middle Juba regions since 2017 and found 21 civilians were killed and 11 injured.
Since President Trump came to power in 2017, AFRICOM has ramped up its air war in Somalia, carrying out a total of 196 air strikes, using both drones and manned aircraft. According to the NGO Airwars, this included 38 strikes in 2017; 48 strikes in 2018; 61 strikes in 2019; and 49 strikes so far, this year.
