The United Nations says more than 4,500 civilians have been killed or wounded in the conflict in Somalia since the start of 2016.
The U.N. Human Rights Office and the U.N. Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) have issued a new report that implicates parties to the conflict in the death and injuries sustained by the civilians.
In the report, covering a period from January 1, 2016 until October 14 2017, UNSOM documented 2,078 civilian deaths and 2,507 injuries. The worst perpetrators of the killings against civilians are the al-Shabab militant group that is responsible for more 60 percent of the casualties according to the report. About a quarter of the death toll comes from the October 14 truck in Mogadishu where a special committee tasked to investigate the incident reported that 512 people were killed and more than 300 others were injured. Al-Shabab has been blamed for the attack.
The report says the conflict disproportionately affected children, exposing them to “grave violations” during military operations.
In the first 10 months of 2017, 3,335 cases of child recruitment were reported with 71.5 per cent attributed to al-Shabab, 14.6 per cent to clan militia, and 7.4 percent to the Somali National Army, the report says.
Somalia and Turkey have recently agreed to improve the relations including the training of Somalia's security forces. Turkey intends to increase its influence in Africa. It might take 2 to 5 years to defeat Al-Shabab in Somalia.
