All Somali parties to the conflict continued to commit serious abuses against children, including killings, maiming, recruitment and use in military operations.Al-Shabab pursued an aggressive child recruitment campaign with retaliation against communities refusing to hand over children, particularly in Galmudug and South West State. OCHA; Published 20 Jan 2019.
Somalia. A Somali girl stands next to her makeshift tent at Tawakal internally displaced persons camp in Mogadishu, Somalia, June 19, 2018. Al-Shabab attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), suicide bombings, and shellings in Mogadishu resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths and injuries.Al-Shabab continues to prohibit most nongovernmental organizations and all UN agencies from working in areas under its control. Tensions between Somaliland and Puntland in the contested Sool border region led to armed clashes, including in January when Somaliland took over the strategic town of Tukaraq. Somalia. They were handed over to the UN for rehabilitation one week later.Somali authorities, particularly the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), unlawfully detained, and at times prosecuted in military courts, children with alleged ties to Al-Shabab. Overall situation: Delayed and sporadic rainfall is jeopardising livelihoods and food security of thousands of Somali families. With the elimination of check and balances in the government of Somalia, the accountability is also eliminated and the parliament is unable to check the other two branches of the government (executive and judiciary) or make laws for the country.
On May 2, a staff member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was kidnapped from an ICRC residence in Mogadishu; she had not been released at time of writing.Internally displaced women and girls remain at particular risk of sexual and gender-based violence by armed men, including government soldiers and militia members, and civilians. Somalia is still recovering from the devastation inflicted by the brutal dictatorship of Siad Barre and cannot afford another dictatorship. AMISOM troop-contributing countries expressed concern over the capacity of Somali government forces to assume key security responsibilities. It is also banned from reporting the casualties of terrorist explosions by Al-Shabab to cover up the exact number of human casualties to hide the government failure to protect the public. Now She’s One of Its Top Officers. 2019 Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan, January - December 2019 Source. Opposition parties are hunted to give up exercising their constitutional rights. The UN said the fighting resulted in the displacement of 12,500 civilians.Civilians were targeted or faced indiscriminate attacks during clan violence, notably in Ceel Afweeyn in Sanaag region, Galgaduud, and Hiraan.In July, media reported that Kenyan forces deployed outside of AMISOM forces had raped three women and two girls in Belet-Hawo town along the Kenyan border.In a December 2017 report, the UN highlighted the lack of transparency around AMISOM investigations and prosecutions, and raised concerns about the lack of formal efforts to protect victims and witnesses from reprisals.Al-Shabab committed serious abuses, including forcibly recruiting children and adults; arbitrary executions, notably of those it accused of spying for the government and foreign forces; and extorting “taxes” through threats. On appeal, Puntland judges reduced, but did not overturn, prison sentences determined by its military court in 2016 to 40 children who fought for Al-Shabab.About 2.6 million Somalis live in protracted internal displacement according to the UN, facing serious abuses, including indiscriminate killings, forced evictions, sexual violence, and limited access to basic services.According to humanitarian actors, over 204,000 people had been forcibly evicted in the first eight months of 2018, including by government forces, primarily in Mogadishu and Bay region.In December 2017, security forces demolished dozens of informal settlements, including humanitarian infrastructure, Humanitarian agencies faced serious challenges in accessing vulnerable populations due to insecurity, restrictions imposed by parties to the conflict, illegal checkpoints, and extortion.
2019 Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan, January - December 2019 Source. Dictatorships, brutalities and human rights abuses have no place in the 21 first century. The Somali federal and regional authorities, along with their international partners, focused on fighting Al-Shabaab and on managing elections including the South West regional presidential elections in late 2018, Puntland parliamentary and presidential elections in early 2019 and Jubaland parliamentary and presidential elections in August 2019.