09/19/2011

Warring factions in Somalia violating international law and ignoring civilians' suffering

Famine in Somalia:

All parties to the conflict in the civil war in Somalia are ignoring the suffering of the starving civilian population and systematically violating humanitarian international law. This serious allegation was made by the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) against both the radical-Islamic Al Shabaab militia and the European Union-supported Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia and its allied Ahlu Sunna militia. Ulrich Delius of the STP's Africa section said on Monday in Göttingen: "Both sides are refusing to let aid workers reach the suffering civilian population and continue escalating the fighting in spite of the worsening famine. In doing so, they consciously accept the deaths of several hundred thousand people. That is a crime against humanity."

Last weekend, the Ahlu Sunna militia called for all-out war against the rebel movement. Anyone who has contact with Al Shabaab is to be killed, asserted the chair of the movement's executive committee in central Somalia, Shaykh Mohamed Yusuf Hefow. The TFG is also committed to war in spite of the spreading famine. In July and August they carried out a number of military offensives in a ruthless attempt to annihilate the Al Shabaab. The transitional government was apparently unconcerned by the fact that this dramatically exacerbated the situation of the famine victims flowing into the contested capital.

On Tuesday and Thursday last week government soldiers prevented aid workers from Somalia and Turkey from getting provisions to the hungry in areas controlled by the rebels, claiming that they could not guarantee the safety of the aid workers. In August 2011 the TFG demanded that foreign aid workers be accompanied by government soldiers. "This is an absurd demand, as it jeopardizes the work, the security and the neutrality of the aid workers. No rebel movement would permit humanitarian aid to reach the civilian population under such conditions," said Delius.

Al Shabaab also denies humanitarian aid workers any access to the famine victims in the areas they control. Furthermore, rebels randomly plunder and confiscate food from farmers, although it is so desperately needed by the people. With arbitrary threats, intimidation, and draconian punishments Al Shabaab has spread fear and horror throughout the population.