Fatal Insecurity - Attacks on aid workers and rights defenders in Somalia

Amnesty International 2008, Anglais, 20 pages

An escalating wave of attacks on humanitarian workers, peace activists and human rights defenders has swept southern and central Somalia. At least 40 Somali human rights defenders and aid workers were killed between 1 January and 10 September 2008.

The targeted violence has forced many humanitarian and civil society organizations to suspend programmes and withdraw staff, even though they are in the middle of a humanitarian emergency. The result is that conditions for the population of southern and central Somalia have deteriorated even further.

Those who target aid workers and civil society - whether they are opposition armed groups, Transitional Federal Government militias or criminal gangs - must be held to account.

The Transitional Federal Government and the Ethiopian forces supporting them must address the crisis. The international community must also take more concerted and effective action: international peacekeeping forces are largely ineffectual while the agendas of powerful countries are varied and contradictory.

Amnesty International calls for the arms embargo on Somalia to be strengthened, for neighbourging countries to open their borders to Somalis seeking asylum, and for all members of the internation community to provide support and refuge to Somali civil society members forced to flee their country. Above all, the international community must exert consistens pressure to demand genuine change - to protect civilians and ensure human rights.