My previous postings about civilian war-deaths have all been about Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Unfortunately, civilians are often casualties of wars in other countries as well.
Below are excerpts of four news reports of civilian casualties in Somalia, where a civil war (with Ethiopian involvement) has been raging for many years. The last report-excerpt gives a human-rights organizations’s estimate that, through the end of 2007, about 6500 civilians had died in Somalia’s conflict.
As elsewhere, civilian casualties in Somalia have been caused by both insurgents and government troops. However, several reports indicate that government retaliation to insurgent activity can be heavy-handed and indiscriminate, too often hitting people who had the misfortune of being near where the insurgents were.
San Francisco Chronicle, 30 March 2008
Ten Civilians Killed as Somalia Shells Rebels
At least 10 civilians were killed in Mogadishu, Somalia’s chaotic capital … after government troops shelled a market area known to be an insurgent hideout.
According to witnesses, the fighting started when insurgents fired mortars at Villa Somalia, the presidential palace and seat of the transitional government. At the time, Somalia’s President, Abdullahi Yusuf, was meeting with Ethiopia’s foreign minister, Seyoum Mesfin. It was not immediately clear if any government officials or Ethiopian troops, who are helping guard the palace, were hit.
The government and Ethiopian forces then responded, sending a barrage of mortar or artillery shells back toward the direction where they had been fired, witnesses said. The shells landed in the crowded Bakara market, which insurgents have used as a base to attack government troops.
PressTV.ir, 18 April 2008
Seven civilians killed in Somalia
Ethiopian troops have killed seven civilians in fresh round of attacks on Buulo Burde town in central Hirran region in Somalia.
The victims were forced out of their homes and shot to death, eyewitnesses told the Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu. They said Ethiopian troops have also taken some others into an unidentified place.
“The victims were suspected of creating panic among residents and provoking the displacement,” the witnesses said.
Hundreds of civilians have evacuated their homes and begun fleeing the town after the victims had said that the Islamic Court Union members (ICU) were approaching the city.
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Associated Press, 23 Feb 2008
Three civilians killed by roadside bomb in Somalia’s capital
MOGADISHU, Somalia: A roadside bomb killed three civilians and wounded five others Saturday in an attack apparently meant for a passing convoy of Ethiopian troops in Somalia’s war-battered capital, witnesses said.
“There were limbs and flesh everywhere,” said resident Abdulkadir Barre, who said he saw three bodies in the middle of the street.
Among the dead were two sisters who ran a shop near the site of the explosion, he said. Another witness, Isse Osman, said he saw five others with serious injuries, one of them a student.
Thousands of people were killed last year in Somalia, many of them caught in the crossfire as Islamic insurgents battle government troops and their Ethiopian allies.
Those who saw the explosion said the bomb went off just after a convoy of Ethiopian soldiers in pickup trucks and other vehicles passed through the area. The site was cordoned off and surrounded by troops in the afternoon.
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Reuters, 31 Dec 2007
Mogadishu violence kills 6,500 in past year
MOGADISHU – Conflict in Somalia killed 6,501 civilians in the capital Mogadishu in 2007 and wounded 8,516 more, a local human rights group said on Monday.
The Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation said it had recorded 1.5 million people uprooted from homes in the city during a year that began with the toppling of an Islamist movement, spawning an insurgency.
The group’s chairman, Sudan Ali Ahmed, blamed Ethiopian forces supporting the interim Somali government for many of the civilian deaths. Residents are often caught in the crossfire as Ethiopian soldiers battle Islamist-led guerrillas.
“The international community must intervene in Somali affairs to force the Ethiopians to get out. At the same time they must bring a joint international peacekeeping force to secure the country,” Ahmed told a news conference.
He said he believed the United States was funding Ethiopia to keep its troops in Somalia, and must take some of the blame.
The Horn of Africa nation has been mired in lawlessness since warlords ousted dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. The transitional government is the country’s 14th attempt at restoring central government since then.
In the latest violence, a mortar strike killed eight members of a family at a refugee camp north of Mogadishu on Sunday. …
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