New Report Says Peacekeepers in Somalia Are Complicit in Sexual Abuses
According to a new report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) last month, military personnel from the U.S.-supported African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) “have sexually abused and exploited vulnerable Somali women and girls on their bases in Mogadishu.” The full report, titled “‘The Power These Men Have Over Us’: Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by African Union Forces in Somalia,” urges the United States to push for more independent oversight of AMISOM military personnel to ensure they are not complicit in such gender-based violence.
The HRW report found that internally displaced Somali women seeking humanitarian supplies from AMISOM are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation. While AMISOM is primarily tasked with reducing the threat posed by al-Shabab and other armed groups, the African Union peacekeeping force is also mandated to “liaise with humanitarian actors and facilitate…humanitarian assistance in 
Somalia.” However, the report describes cases of Somali women being sexually abused while seeking medicine, food or water from AMISOM, according to interviews of victims and others in Burundi, Somalia and Uganda.
Launched in 2007, AMISOM has consistently received various forms of U.S. support including direct and indirect funding, training, equipment and logistical support. According to the most recent data available, in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 the United States allocated over $228 million in Peacekeeping Operations funding to Somalia, some of which went directly to AMISOM. For FY 2015, the State Department also requested $165.5 million for the U.N. Support Office for AMISOM (UNSOA).
The alleged AMISOM violations aren’t isolated. Reports of international peacekeepers committing such human rights violations stretch back to the 1990s and have appeared in countries all over the world. Many of these peacekeepers have received U.S. support in the form of Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) funding. For example, the Democratic Republic of Congo received over $122 million in PKO assistance from 2008 to 2014.
In response to cases of U.N. peacekeepers’ involvement in sexual abuse around the world, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan released a bulletin titled “Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse” in October 2003. The bulletin obligates all U.N. staff to report any suspicion of sexual misconduct and “explicitly prohibits peacekeepers from exchanging any money, goods, or services for sex.” In January 2014, the African Union and the United Nations also signed an agreement on preventing and responding to sexual violence in Africa.
In a move to integrate women into peacebuilding efforts and combat gender-based violence, the State Department launched the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security (NAP) in August 2012. First conceptualized in December 2011, the NAP is a policy designed in part to train “all peacekeepers on the prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence, gender issues, and human rights,” and promote “access to justice for survivors of gender-based violence” around the world.
Despite the above initiatives, there are continuing challenges to effectively addressing such sexual abuses in Somalia. Under the status of mission agreement that governs AMISOM, countries contributing troops to AMISOM such as Burundi and Uganda hold sole jurisdiction in prosecuting any criminal offenses committed by their forces in Somalia. While these countries have created some procedures to deal with misconduct, the report says these countries have not “provided the necessary resources to investigate allegations or made the investigation and prosecution of sexual exploitation and abuse a priority.” In addition, AMISOM lacks complaint mechanisms for victims to report on cases of alleged sexual abuse.
In order to improve the situation in Somalia, the Human Rights Watch report provides several recommendations for major donors such as the United States. The report calls on international donors to “ensure that the U.N. Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) has a strong human rights unit and is able to implement the Secretary-General’s Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, which seeks to ensure that the U.N. does not support abusive non-U.N. forces.” If there is substantiated evidence of HRW’s findings, the report recommends that international donors withdraw their financial support until the necessary corrective actions have been taken.