A member of Somali Federal Parliament said on Wednesday that Kenya will be held accountable for civilian deaths in Southern Somalia, accusing the East Africa nation of ‘’recklessly’’ bombing the civilians.
Somali army officials in Gedo region and other local elders revealed yesterday that the Kenyan warplanes airborne attacks caused the death of at least 17 civilians and wounded over 30 others. This came after al-Shabaab militants raided a Kenyan military base in the region last week which caused the death of dozens of Kenyan soldiers, part of the African Union mission in Somalia.
MP Abdifatah Nur Matan, who hails from the Gedo region close to the Somalia-Kenya border in the South-western, strongly condemned the death of the civilians and said that Kenyan peacekeepers have no any mandate of carrying out airstrikes against civilians.
‘’Kenyan forces have been striking civilian areas recklessly in the region and dozens have died for no reasons. They should separate between al-Shabaab and civilians.
‘’If they think that no one will come after them for this crime, we will hold account Kenya for this unlawful crime. They are not exempted from International law and we will not allow our civilians to be killed in such a harsh and unacceptable way,’’ he said.
Kenyan officials have not denied nor admitted on the accusations of killing civilians.
In the past, Kenyan warplanes killed dozens of civilians in Southern Somalia in airborne attacks aimed at the al-Qaeda-linked extremists.
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Kenya will be held accountable for civilian deaths – Somalia MP
Published: January 20, 2016
