Somalia is a shattered nation, the most dangerous place on Earth for aid workers and the scene of horrific abuses by combatants on all sides of the conflict, a US-based human rights group said Monday.
“Somalia is a nation in ruins, mired in one of the worlds most brutal armed conflicts,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said, noting that “two long years of escalating bloodshed and destruction have devastated the countrys people and laid waste to its capital Mogadishu”.
The 104-page report, “So Much to Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia,” describes how the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the Ethiopian forces that intervened in Somalia to support it and insurgent forces have committed widespread and serious violations of the laws of war.
Frequent violations include indiscriminate attacks, killings, rape, use of civilians as human shields, and looting. Since early 2007, the escalating conflict has claimed thousands of civilian lives, displaced more than a million people, and driven out most of the population of Mogadishu.
Increasing attacks on aid workers in the past year have severely limited relief operations and contributed to an emerging humanitarian crisis.
Læs rapportens hovedtræk på http://www.hrw.org/en/node/76418/section/4
Kilde: Human Rights Watch website
