Western-backed African Union (AU) troops in Somalia gang raped women and girls as young as 12 and traded food aid for sex, Human Rights Watch has said.
An investigation uncovered evidence of sexual exploitation of women seeking medicine for sick babies at what they assumed was the safety of AU military bases.
The 22,000-strong AU force in Somalia, known as AMISOM, with soldiers drawn from six countries, has been fighting alongside Somali government troops against the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab since 2007.
On Monday AMISOM said that the alleged rapes were “isolated” incidents and described the report as “unbalanced and unfair.”
The 71-page report, The Power These Men Have Over Us, documents cases involving troops from Burundi and Uganda.
AMISOM also draws military personnel from Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Sierra Leone.
The vulnerable women largely came from camps in the capital, Mogadishu, having fled rural Somalia during a famine in 2011. The youngest girl interviewed was 12 and said she had been raped by a Ugandan soldier.
The mother of one girl who was allegedly raped told the group that she was deeply traumatized.
“People laugh at her whenever she comes out,” the mother said. “They say: ‘An infidel raped her.’ How can you feel if your daughter asks you: ‘Mother, I better die to hide my shameful face from the people?’”
The report, based on testimonies of 21 women and girls, says: “Some of the women who were raped said that the soldiers gave them food or money afterwards in an apparent attempt to frame the assault as transactional sex.”
The AU soldiers, “relying on Somali intermediaries, have used a range of tactics, including humanitarian aid, to coerce vulnerable women and girls into sexual activity,” the report says. “They have also raped or otherwise sexually assaulted women who were seeking medical assistance or water at AMISOM bases.”
In only two cases had women who spoke to the watchdog filed police complaints. Most had not because they “feared stigma, reprisals from family, police and al-Shabaab,” the report says.
Human Rights Watch said it conducted the research for its report on AMISOM in Somalia, Uganda and Burundi. It also interviewed more than 30 witnesses, foreign observers and military personnel from troop-contributing countries.
“The findings raise serious concerns about abuses by AMISOM soldiers against Somali women and girls that suggest a much larger problem,” the group said.
AMISOM’ commander, Burundian General Silas Ntigurirwa, told Agence France-Presse that the report documented “allegations of isolated cases of rape,” and insisted that his soldiers were given strict orders against raping and looting.
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