US military releases report on civilian casualties in Somalia
NAIROBI, Kenya – The US Africa Command on Friday released a report on civilian casualties in Somalia, which assesses the operations of troops who have assisted local forces, including through aerial surveillance in the fight against Al-Shabaab.
The civilian casualty assessment was introduced in 2020 following complaints of deaths targeting innocent civilians in airstrikes. The United States said the move would improve transparency in such exercises in addition to helping those who may be accidentally affected.
During the last quarterly civilian casualty assessment reporting period ending June 30, 2021, the U.S. Africa Command received a civilian casualty report on May 31, 202, the Command said in a statement. .
The report was a duplicate of the May 2018 reports previously assessed by the U.S. Africa Command and found to be unfounded. The command closed and corroborated one additional case that was carried over from the previous civilian casualty assessment report. There is currently no open assessment of civilian casualties.
This was the sixth quarterly civilian casualty assessment report since the US Africa Command began publishing reports in April 2020 as part of its commitment to increase transparency and accountability.
The command said it was continuing to study recommendations made at the March 2021 non-governmental organization (NGO) roundtable to refine the civilian casualty assessment process.
With every air strike, we do a thorough pre-strike assessment to reduce the likelihood of harm to civilians, ”US Army General Stephen Townsend, commander of the US Africa Command, said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, our Jan. 1 airstrike, which was designed to protect the repositioning of US troops and accurately hit its intended target, likely injured three nearby civilians as well.”
On January 1, 2021, an incident with civilian casualties was reported to the United States Embassy in Mogadishu, the United States Congress, and the Federal Government of Somalia.
The US military left Somalia in January 2021 following an order from the Defense Department, but since Joe Biden took over there are plans to redeploy troops to the country from the Horn of the United States. Africa. Currently, a number of US special forces are in Wajir, Kenya, assisting the KDF in the Al-Shabaab war.
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