All sides in Somalia’s conflict, including peacekeepers, government troops and Islamist rebels, have carried out war crimes and killed civilians, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said yesterday.
The rights groups accused insurgents, Somali government troops and members of the African Union Amisom peacekeeping force of firing indiscriminately into civilian areas during fighting, adding to the suffering in a country hit by famine.
Somalia’s government denied the charges, saying rebels were responsible for most war crimes. No one was immediately available for comment from Amisom.
“Abuses by al Shabaab (rebels) and by pro- government forces have vastly multiplied the suffering from Somalia’s famine,” HRW’s African division researcher, Neela Ghoshal, said in Nairobi.