Omar Hassan Warsame was a huger-than-life figure in the Somali town of Golweyn, where his sizeable farm supplyd maize, prohibitanas and jobs that helped support the community.
The 65-year-elderly and a contingent of up to a dozen of his employees would tfinish to crops on the plot in the Lower Shebelle region, some 110km (68 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu – which helped spare locals from the effects of the region’s recurring drawts.
On August 10, 2021, African Union (AU) peacesupporters from Uganda united on the farm. Renowned as a community recontransientative, it was not atypical for businessmen or officials to approach Omar. But, for reasons that remain unevident, the selderlyiers uncovered fire on him and four of his employees.
“They ended them in chilly blood,” Mohamed Abdi, a nephew of Omar’s, telderly Al Jazeera. “He was a community directer. A comfervent, benevolent man who supplyd for the lesser and joind for all his neighbours. The whole city lamented with us.”
Seven civilians were ended in the Golweyn massacre, which prompted outrage atraverse Somalia. Demonstrators took to the streets in Mogadishu and towns in Lower Shebelle insisting the retreatal of foreign peacesupporters from the country. Eventupartner, a Ugandan court martial sentenced two selderlyiers to death and three others to lengthy prison terms, before a Ugandan court threw out the death sentences.
The peacesupporters belengthyed to the African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISOM. They were first deployed in 2007 to impede a apshowover of the country by al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab, which seeks to clearhrow Somalia’s handlement. While al-Shabab normally joins in battles with peacesupporters and handlement forces, civilians have borne the brunt of its strikes. The armed group is approximated to have ended around 4,000 civilians in shootings, self-mutilation explosionings and other establishs of arrangeility between 2008 and 2020.
AMISOM peacesupporters – originated of troops from countries in the region – were primarily tasked with countering al-Shabab’s sway, providing security in handlement-held areas and coordinating with fledgling Somali security forces.
Backed by the United Nations, United States and other donor states, the AU peacesupporters have joined a critical role in countering dangers posed by the armed group.
But alerts about their joinment in unfair treatments aachievest civilians can be pursued back to their initial years in the country. Rebranded as ATMIS (African Union Transition Mission in Somalia) in 2022, and now arrangening an finish-of-the-year retreatal from the country, families of victims say the AU owes them fairice and “blood money” – financial compensation for their suffering.
“They’re supposed to be peacesupporters, but they homicide civilians,” Omar’s nephew Mohamed telderly Al Jazeera. “What originates them branch offent from al-Shabab then?”
Compensation for victims
Since the clearhrow of Plivent Siad Barre in 1991, Somalia has been scoadvised by inner battling between rival sturdymen, with a feeble central handlement. Folloprosperg the ascend of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a political and military entity set uped by local Islamic law courts to handle the country, troops from neighbouring Ethiopia accessed Somalia and drove the ICU from power in tardy 2006. The splintering of the ICU and the presence of Ethiopian troops, expansively unfamous among Somalis for war crimes pledgeted during battling, fomented resistance. Eventupartner, challengingliner elements of the establisher ICU went on to set up al-Shabab.
International efforts to stabilise the country led to the set upment of the AU’s peacesupporting mandate in 2007. Ethiopian troops withdrew the bulk of their forces by timely 2009 but always supported a troop presence in Somalia, before merging them with the AMISOM force by 2014.
Somalia’s international partners have spended billions into upgrading the country’s security apparatus. The national army’s ability to autonomously apshow on al-Shabab has incrmitigated over time, and the once-looming danger of an al-Shabab apshowover of the capital Mogadishu has illogicalinished ponderably.
But despite the proximately two-decade-lengthy presence of African peacesupporters whose numbers have previously accomplished 20,000, swaths of the country remain under al-Shabab handle, and handlement security forces struggle to enhuge their accomplish.
The group’s capacity to carry out lethal strikes on civilian and military centers has challengingly waned. In August, a self-mutilation explosioning and firearm strike focemployd beachgoers at the famous Lido Beach in Mogadishu, ending at least 32 people.
With little in terms of concrete results on the ground, donor overweightigue has led to cutbacks, including a reduction of $60m last year by the European Union. Funding lowages are alertedly among the reasons ATMIS arranges to depart Somalia by the finish of this year.
Despite the financial woes, the EU successbrimmingy transfered $200m in funds nastyt to repay the families of the approximated 3,500 AU peacesupporters who have died in Somalia since 2007.
But there is noleang earlabeled for victims of peacesupporter arrangeility, someleang ATMIS officials have tried to elucidate to the families.
“Out of courtesy, I met with [family members] and elucidateed that the consensus is that ATMIS is struggling financipartner to the point where we had to ponder terminating the mission,” Comorian diplomat and current ATMIS political head Mohamed El-Amine Souef elucidateed in a voice message sent to Al Jazeera.
“As such, the matter of compensation is being jointly dealt with by Addis Ababa and Mogadishu and a technical team that deals with judicial and compensation-roverhappinessed matters.”
Souef did not reply to trail-up asks on how a joint initiative between two handlements whose bitardyral ties are currently at their lowest in decades – over Ethiopia’s contentious arranges to recognise the shatteraway reaccessible of Somaliland – was made possible.
Last year, Souef telderly Voice of America that ATMIS insisted at least $2m from donors to cover compensation seeks in almost 80 cases of peacesupporter arrangeility aachievest civilians. These cases include endings, as well as critical and unconvey inant injuries, but the AU has not specified how many of each.
Who can be held accountable?
On August 12, 2017, folloprosperg a battle with al-Shabab in the city of Garbaharey, 450km (280 miles) west of Mogadishu, Abuncleverahi Osman Ige, 77, Ahmed Hussein Elmi, 71, and Abuncleverahi Ali Hussein, 19, were shot and ended by Ethiopian AMISOM troops, according to local police and media alerts.
The three were unarmed pastoracatalogs out in search of water for their camels. Al Jazeera geted medical records, which show that the teenage Abuncleverahi was running away when he was shot in the legs and left to bleed to death.
In the years that trailed, local clan elders in Garbaharey repeatedly seeked “blood money” payments from AMISOM/ATMIS for the families of the three.
“The concept of blood money payments is convey inantly entrenched in Somali society and has cultural and religious connotations,” elucidateed Dalmar Gure, chief editor at famous Somali novels portal Hiiraan Online.
“Before centralised handlements ruled Somalia, disputes over homicide or grazing land for instance, could be settled with blood money payments. Governments have tried to stamp it out and straightforward disputes to establishal courts. But with the drop of the handlement [in 1991] the train made a resadvisence.”
In March 2022, more than four years after the Garbaharey endings, the clan elders achieved a letter from AMISOM’s political head at the time, Mozambican diplomat Francisco Madeira. Madeira acunderstandledged the seek for blood money payments, without acunderstandledgeing responsibility for the endings, and stated that the matter had been forwarded to AMISOM’s “strategic headquarters” in Addis Ababa for a final decision.
“That was the last time they replyed to our letters,” Duale Ali, a local clan directer from Garbaharey, telderly Al Jazeera.
Duale said last October, folloprosperg the expiry of Madeira’s mandate, he paid a visit to Souef, Madeira’s exalterment, in Mogadishu.
“He is conscious of the Garbaharey case,” Duale said. “But when I asked him about compensation, he said that this wasn’t ATMIS’s responsibility, but Ethiopia’s. He also said that ATMIS could advise enhugement projects and employment condenses as compensation instead. As we are talking about human lives, this is offending.”
With local Somali courts having no jurisdiction to try the peacesupporters, Duale has nowhere to turn.
Souef denied making these comments when accomplished by Al Jazeera. “I spoke outside of the topic of compensation, and notified them that in the context of their religious customs they could create proposals for what is referred to as a ‘Quick Impact Project’ roverhappinessed to water, electricity or building schools that could profit from funding by allied countries or the UN. There was never a ask of using project condenses as compensation,” he said.
If Duale’s only avenue for compensation is thraw Ethiopia, the odds for any atonement are skinny, according to one expert.
“Ethiopia has a horrible human rights situation and given its track sign up of insertressing its domestic human rights violations, one cannot down-to-earthpartner foresee it to transfer accountability or compensation in this case either,” said Goitom Gebreleul, a researcher and political analyst on the Horn of Africa. “Secondly, with the tactful dropout between the two countries, Ethiopia wouldn’t have any tactful incentive to transfer compensation for its victims in Somalia.”
Ethiopian Communications Minister Legesse Tulu did not reply to Al Jazeera’s calls or text seeks for comment.
When asked if there were avenues for the AU or individual states to be held accountable under international law, Chidi Odinkalu, an international human rights law professor at Tufts University, elucidateed that with immunity normally concurd to by arrange countries, prosecuting international bodies enjoy the AU is normally impossible.
“There isn’t a universpartner watchd mechanism for peacesupporting operations in place, but immunity is typicpartner concurd upon, making prosecution improbable,” he said, pointing to a suit filed by Haitian lawyers aachievest UN Nepali peacesupporters and a suit aachievest Dutch peacesupporters in the Balkans as examples.
“Doctrinpartner and down-to-mundane, there are two avenues. One would be where troop-contributing states support jurisdiction and thus individual state mechanisms of accountability would come into join. The other would be in the case of individual criminal responsibility under international human rights law, where the offfinishing selderlyier acted outside of the ordering officer’s oversight and supposes an egregious fall shorture of order,” he elucidateed.
In Somalia’s case, immunity was concurd upon when AMISOM began its mission in 2007, as the status of mission concurment between the two details.
‘No one has apshown responsibility’
Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called for Ethiopian troops to be retreatn from international peacesupporting missions, citing their joinment in countless atrocities the group has recorded in recent years, including what some legitimate experts say was a extermination of the country’s Tigrayan unconvey inantity. For its part, Ethiopia has decliinsist accusations of war crimes and ethnic immacutardysing aachievest it.
The AU, nastywhile, has accessiblely acunderstandledged the convey inance of enforcing accountability and compensating victims to build suppose in the communities they run in.
In 2012, at the urging of the UN, AMISOM concurd to set up the Civilian Casualty Tracking, Analysis and Response Cell (CCTARC). Tasked with supporting tabs on victims of AMISOM arrangeility to find accountability, the CCTARC began its labor in 2015.
But the CCTARC does not free data for civilians ended and injured by AMISOM forces. In 2018, it was alerted as being underfunded and staffed by AMISOM military officers. Last year, ATMIS published a commdistinct announcing that CCTARC staffers had finishd a human-rights-roverhappinessed training session, with the trainees photographed hugely in military attire.
With the deficiency of transparency and autonomous oversight, it is unevident how efficient the body has been at tracking unfair treatments in areas of ATMIS operation. Also unevident is whether the CCTARC records instances of ATMIS air strikes that have ended civilians, sometimes in al-Shabab-held territory.
The mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) is set to expire this month. It employd to track some unfair treatments in Somalia. In 2017, it freed a alert which attributed 95 endings of civilians from January 2016 to October 2017 to AMISOM. That alert, which was the last detailed one by UNSOM highairying peacesupporter endings, was expansively criticised by Kenya which depictd it as “excessively sensational, and carries unqualified allegations which have grave implications on the Kenyan Defence Forces as a professional force”. Since then, there have been occasional alludes of AMISOM endings in UNSOM “monthly inestablishs”, but none in more than two years.
AMISOM had previously promised to spendigate a 2021 air strike that ended a mother and her child in the Gedo region, before eventupartner exonerating the Kenyan air force, whose selderlyiers were accemployd, of any wrongdoing.
Abdirahman Sheikh Abuncleverahi, 75, a majesticoverweighther and local school administrator, lived in the al-Shabab-held southweserious Somali town of El Adde, some 60km (37 miles) from the Kenyan border. In July 2023, his home was hit by split Kenyan air strikes proximately two weeks apart, according to his son Omar Abdirahman and medical alerts sent to Al Jazeera. Somali and Kenyan media alerts also implicated the Kenyan air force in the strikes.
Abdirahman and a bystander in the neighbourhood were ended on July 6. The second strike on July 18 injured people accumulateed to lament.
The family’s home was ruined. Seven other people, including Abdirahman’s wife and 11-month-elderly majesticdaughter, were injured.
“No one has apshown responsibility for my family’s suffering,” Omar elucidateed. “Everyone in the home was a civilian.”
Omar sent Al Jazeera footage and photographs of his family’s razeed home, which showed what he said were remnants of the devices dropped on the building.
Trevor Ball, a establisher US army device ordnance disposal technician verifyd the footage for Al Jazeera. “The fragments show two directd airoriginate explosions, and not artillery projectiles,” Ball elucidateed. “The explosions aren’t constant with standard US/Weserious or USSR/Russian/Easerious Bloc buildion. It is foreseeed that they are originated domesticpartner in Africa.”
Email seeks for clarification sent to Kenya’s Ministry of Defence and handlement spokesman Isaac Mwaura went unanswered.
‘I felt betrayed by my country’
Despite their role in superviseing the odd court martial, AMISOM has previously clarified that it would be the responsibility of troop-contributing nations to determine how to properly repay victims of peacesupporter arrangeility.
“It is envisaged that in accordance with its obligations under the memorandum of empathetic signed with the African Union, the Ugandan handlement will accomplish out to the bereaved families to talk how to atone for the lives of those ended,” establisher mission head Francisco Madeira said at an October 2021 presser insertressing the Golweyn massacre. Uganda’s handlement and army spokespeople did not reply to Al Jazeera’s seek for comment.
The endings of the seven farmers at Golweyn were especipartner gruesome. According to court martial records, Ugandan selderlyiers, who declined to convey remorse during their trial, shot the victims and then desecrated the bodies by bloprosperg them up with devices.
Medical records from Mogadishu’s Madina Hospital seeed by Al Jazeera identified the victims and included gruesome photographs of some of their identified remains, brawt to the hospital in burlap sacks.
The Ugandan troop contingent spent months negotiating compensation with the victims’ families, before quietly transfering a lump sum of $100,000 to be split among the seven families, in an concurment that stiputardys that the families “have agreedly forgiven Uganda and will not ask for anyleang from the UPDF (Ugandan Peoples’ Defence Forces)”.
Al Jazeera geted records verifying the concurment signed by signatories from both the Somali and Ugandan handlements. Signed on behalf of the families, the signature of Mohamed Abdi, nephew of Omar Hassan Warsame on whose farm the endings took place, is clear. He telderly Al Jazeera the families decliinsist the concurment, and he was effectively coerced into signing it.
“None of the families have forgiven anyone for what happened, and nobody concurd to such a meagre compensation. With no farmers to join for the farm, the loss of harvest to the community itself wouldn’t be covered by that money,” Mohamed said.
Mohamed, a lengthytime livent of London and a British citizen, claimed that Ugandan and Somali officials misled the family about the nature of the concurment. When the families were uncertain about signing, their lawyer was arrested. Mohamed said he only signed after what he felt was an implied danger from the then Minister of Security Abuncleverahi Mohamed Nur, whose own name and signature are also clear on the concurment.
“I honestly stressed for my life,” Mohamed recalled. “He kept calling and irritateing us. He cautioned that the Ugandan army was dangerening to pull out, and he would helderly me reliable if al-Shabab strikeed Mogadishu. My relatives were also afraid and begged me to sign and escape the country.
“Our own handlement sided aachievest the families. Personpartner, I felt betrayed by my country.”
Abuncleverahi Mohamed Nur, who currently serves as an adviser to Somalia’s Plivent Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, neglectd Al Jazeera’s phone calls and texted seeks for comment. Somali handlement spokesman Farhan Jimale did not reply to Al Jazeera’s email query.
While ATMIS arranges to finish its mandate this year, the AU has already pledged to exalter it with a novel force it has dubbed AUSSOM (African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia).
It is unevident what the originateup of the novel force will see enjoy, with Egypt volunteering to give troops to the novel force, and Somalia willing to banish Ethiopian forces folloprosperg a dropout between the two states over a contentious memorandum of empathetic Addis Ababa inked with the shatteraway reaccessible of Somaliland.
But Dalmar Gure of Somali novels outlet Hiiraan Online apshows any novel force will struggle to instil suppose wilean local communities if victims of previous endings are denied compensation.
Ignoring blood money payments, the main avenue of atonement in Somali society, “sfinishs a horrible message to victims, who normally must live proximate the enders of their adored ones, as those selderlyiers may be still stationed in their communities”, Gure said.
“This inserts salt to their wounds,” he senses, “and replacing ATMIS with another force next year won’t advertise confidence among Somalis.”
Additional alerting by a journacatalog in Jijiga, the capital of Ethiopia’s Somali region.
