Contact Admin. Investigate and prosecute sexual exploitation and abuse. Try alleged perpetrators in Somalia. Prioritize efforts to eliminate sexual abuse and exploitation. The African Union should: Create disciplinary and investigatory capacities in all AU military operations. 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.
They have also raped or otherwise sexually assaulted women who were seeking medical assistance or water at AMISOM bases.
Human Rights Watch interviewed 21 women and girls who described being raped or sexually exploited by Ugandan or Burundian military personnel serving with the AU forces.
They should establish or strengthen instruments and bodies that have responsibility for addressing these abuses, such as conduct and discipline units, and an independent investigative body at the AU level. All of the Somali women and girls interviewed were from displaced communities from south-central Somalia. In addition, Human Rights Watch interviewed over 30 witnesses, foreign observers, military personnel, and officials from troop-contributing countries.
The research focused on incidents in Mogadishu, where Ugandan and Burundian soldiers are present and does not preclude the possibility that similar abuses have occurred elsewhere. Years of conflict and famine in Somalia have displaced tens of thousands of women and girls from their communities, and from their family and clan support networks.
