Somalia: Family's agony as African Union forces kill a young university graduate outside Mogadishu

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Somalia: Family's agony as African Union forces kill a young university graduate outside Mogadishu

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) Abdirahman Farah Sidow, a young university graduate was returning to his tailor shop when he was hit by a military vehicle of the African Union forces at Elasha Biyaha on the outskirts of Mogadishu on Wednesday 30 November 2

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Abdirahman Farah Sidow passed away after he was hit by African Union forces military convoy on Wednesday.

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) Abdirahman Farah Sidow, a young university graduate was returning to his tailor shop when he was hit by a military vehicle of the African Union forces at Elasha Biyaha on the outskirts of Mogadishu on Wednesday 30 November 2022. He was rushed to the hospital where he passed away, according to family.

The incident resulted public uproar as angry residents backed by the police blocked the main road. That was after the African Union convoy attempted to flee from the crime scene.

"It was absolute brutality that you kill a young Somali man and you attempt to run away," said a local community elder Abdirahman Dahir.

Now the family says they are yet unaware of any investigation into the incident.

"My brother died in the hospital. His injury was very serious as he was hit on the head. What can we do now we can not return him back as he was our breadwinner," said the deceased's sister Asha Farah.

The same concern has been raised by the local authorities of Elasha Biyaha under the Lower Shabelle regional administration.

"We communicated the ATMIS command near Afgoye. But they never responded to us. They think the civilians are like animals. They kill at will and leave," said deputy district commissioner Mohamed Hassan.

On 1 December, ATMIS issued a public statement acknowledging the death of the young man.

"The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia expresses its heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased and has since set up a preliminary investigation team to work closely with witnesses, government, and local authorities to investigate the deeply regrettable accident," ATMIS said.

"The findings of the investigation team be presented to a Board of Inquiry," the mission adds.

ATMIS is the new name for the African Union mission in Somalia formerly known as AMISOM.

The mission has been implicated in previous human rights violations in Somalia and one major concern is that, despite the foreign forces are committing human rights violations against civilians in Somalia, the Ugandan forces are not the only ones implicated in abuses; and yet, so far, the others have shown little interest in holding their troops accountable.

In 2014 - 2015 report, the rights group, Human Rights Watch said it had documented abuses by the AMISOM forces on a number of occasions, including sexual exploitation and abuse of Somali women and girls, and indiscriminate killings of civilians.