30 October 2006 - CRIN Children and Armed Conflict 101
Special Edition on Somalia
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- Background on the conflict in Somalia
- International norms and standards on child rights and protection in Somalia
- Somali Islamists recruit for jihad against Ethiopia
- Future of more than a million Somali children on a knife-edge
- UNICEF Somalia Monthly Review on events in Somalia, September 2006
- News in brief on children and armed conflict around the world
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Background on the conflict in Somalia
[30 October 2006] - An estimated 750,000 people have fled their homes in Somalia since fighting began fifteen years ago. Since January alone, some 25,000 Somali refugees have found refuge in neighbouring Kenya, and the number of newcomers has risen dramatically in the last two months, with 200-300 people reportedly arriving daily.
The security situation has become increasingly difficult for humanitarian workers to operate in, with many aid agencies pulling their staff out of the country. Somalia is the only country in the world apart from Chechnya where humanitarian workers use armed escorts as a matter of routine.
The country has been in turmoil since the collapse of Siad Barre’s government in 1991. The security situation has deteriorated in recent months since the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) took control of the capital, Mogadishu, and a large part of south-central Somalia. The Courts are now engaged in a stand-off with the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which was formed in 2004 in Kenya with the support of the international community.
The TFG is the closest thing Somalia has had to a functional central government since 1991. It has little credibility in Somalia itself, where it is seen as a puppet of international interests and because it has failed to establish rule of law and provide basic services in areas under its control. It has also been riddled with internal disputes.
The UIC was formed from a group of clan-based Sharia courts which were initially set up to combat lawlessness in Mogadishu. Dominated by the Hawiye clan, they have gained the respect of some Somalis for clamping down on street fighting and for providing some basic services, such as schools and hospitals.
The rise of the Islamic Courts has been met with alarm by neighbouring Ethiopia and the wider international community. The US believes the group is harbouring members of Al-Qaeda, which it says bombed two US embassies in 1998. Ethiopia was targeted in terrorist attacks in the mid-1990s and, considering the Courts a security threat, it has stationed troops in the country. It has threatened to ‘crush’ the UIC should it make any advances against its ally, the TFG. The UIC has responded by declaring a defensive holy war, known as a jihad for which it is recruiting thousands of young men. The conflict escalated last Tuesday when Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, said that Ethiopia was “technically” at war with Somalia’s Islamists following the declaration of a defensive jihad. The tension between the two countries is threatening to engulf the peaceful territories of Somaliland and Puntland.
Reconciliation talks held between the UIC, the TFG and the International Contact Group on Somalia (ICG) last week in Nairobi were due to continue today, 30 October, for a third round of talks. However, the UIC has today announced that it will not take part in talks until Ethiopia withdraws its troops. The talks have also been marred by outrage that the UIC has violated the terms of an agreement made during talks in Khartoum and concern over the militarisation of the country. The two groups had previously agreed, under talks brokered by the League of Arab States, to unite their forces and re-establish the Somali national army and police force, which the country has been without since 1991.
Speaking on Friday in New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged all parties to exercise restraint. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters, “The Secretary-General stresses that the solution in Somalia is political and not military. He urges the Somali parties to settle their differences through dialogue...And he calls on the international community, especially Somalia’s neighbours, to avoid any action that could further aggravate the situation.”
[Sources: International Crisis Group, IRIN, AlertNet, UNHCR, BBC, UN News Centre]
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=10963
Further information
Drought
In addition to years of fighting, Somalia has this year been hit by its worst drought in two decades, followed by heavy flooding. For more information, see:
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International norms and standards on child rights and protection in Somalia
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Somalia is one of two States which have not yet ratified the Convention. The other is the United States of America. Somalia has not had a central government since 1991, when President Siad Barre was overthrown. It ratified four international human rights treaties before 1991 and has not ratified any since.
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
Somalia signed the African Charter in June 1991, but again, has not yet ratified it.
More information
African Commission on Human and People's Rights: Resolution 51 on the Resolution of the Peace and National Reconciliation Process in Somalia (2000)
UN Security Council
In July 2005, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1612 which created two important structures: a monitoring and reporting mechanism and a Working Group on children and armed conflict.
The Working Group has a mandate to review the reports of the monitoring and reporting mechanism and the progress in the development and implementation of action plans on steps taken by groups named in the Secretary General’s lists to stop recruitment and use of children in armed conflict. It also makes recommendations on measures to promote the protection of children affected by armed conflict.
The Working Group also considers country reports. At its fourth meeting on 26 June, 2006,the Group discussed an overview from the Secretary-General on situations of armed conflict where children are severely affected. This drew attention to situations in Chad, Sri Lanka and Somalia. The Group has agreed its work programme around these discussions. It will hold a meeting on the situation in Somalia in December to which the permanent representative will be invited to attend.
More information
Secretary-General’s report to the Security Council in February 2005, p.7
Special Procedures
“Special procedures” is the general name given to the mechanisms established by the Commission on Human Rights (which has now been replaced by the Human Rights Council) to address specific country situations or thematic issues. They are set up to examine, monitor, advise, and publicly report on human rights situations in specific countries or on specific thematic issues. The new Human Rights Council has renewed country mandates for one year but is reviewing them as a result of criticism levelled at the Commission that country mandates always focus on the same countries and avoid condemning human rights violations in certain countries, when given the opportunity.
The country mandate on Somalia was created in 1993. The current Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia is Mr. Ghanim Alnajjar of Kuwait who was appointed by the UN Secretary-General in 2001.
Read a transcript of discussions about the Independent Expert's report on Somalia which was presented to the Human Rights Council in September 2006.
More information
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=10967&flag=report
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Somali Islamists recruit for jihad against Ethiopia
[MOGADISHU, 25 October 2006] - Somali Islamists have begun recruiting thousands of young fighters to fight a jihad against Ethiopia, officials said last Wednesday, amid fears of all-out war across the lawless Horn of Africa nation.
A day after claiming to have captured an Ethiopian military officer in fierce weekend battles with a militia allied to Somalia's weak government, the Islamists said that at least 3,000 people had enlisted for combat in the holy war.
Many of the new recruits have signed up in the last two days, since the supreme leader of the powerful Islamist movement announced the start of a threatened jihad against Ethiopian troops alleged in Somalia, officials said.
"We have at least 3,000 young fighters who have now registered to fight the enemy of Allah," a senior official with the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SICS) official said in Mogadishu.
The newcomers, including women, will join what the Islamists claim are tens of thousands of battle-hardened gunmen who seized Mogadishu in June from warlords and now control most of southern and central Somalia.
"We have trained them to fight and that is religious obligation," said Sheikh Abdinur Farah, a senior Islamist commander who runs a jihad recruitment center in Qoryoley, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Mogadishu.
"Ethiopia has made clear its intention: that is a war against us," he said from the town. "So we are calling an open war against Ethiopia and every young fighter is welcome to join the jihad against the Ethiopian invaders."
Ethiopia and the Somali government have repeatedly denied eyewitness accounts of Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia, although Addis Ababa has said several times that it has sent trainers and advisors.
But mainly Christian Ethiopia has vowed to protect itself and the Somali government from the jihadists, whom, together with the transitional government, it accuses of links with Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.
On Tuesday, the Islamists claimed to have seized the Ethiopian officer in clashes that killed at least 51 people north of the southern port of Kismayo.
Ethiopia has not yet responded to the alleged capture of the officer who was not identified by name or rank.
On Monday, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, chief of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) and a hardline cleric designated a "terrorist" by the United States, urged Somalis to take up arms against Ethiopian troops.
Several recruits from Qoryoley Wednesday said that they had been inspired to join the jihad by Aweys' speech in which he vowed that the graves of Ethiopian troops would "be littered everywhere in Somalia."
"I have been looking for somewhere to devote my passion for my religion and country," said 23-year-old Abdullahi Sidow Hassan. "Now that the righteous jihad has started, I have found it.
Fadumo Isaq Duale, 20, a female student, echoed that sentiment. "I am ready to die for my religion because it is a religious obligation on every Muslim, be it man or woman," she said. "We have nothing to lose because Ethiopia is violating our religion and our land."
Soaring tensions between the Islamists and the government and worsening security in south and central Somalia have forced tens of thousands to flee into neighboring Kenya and added to concerns of widespread conflict.
The deteriorating situation threatens to scupper a planned third round of Arab League-mediated peace talks between the government and the Islamists set to begin October 30 in Khartoum.
Somalia has been without a functioning central administration since 1991 and the government, formed in neighboring Kenya in 2004, has been wracked by infighting and unable to assert control over much of the country.
[Source: AFP/ Hiiraan Online]
Further information
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Future of more than a million Somali children on a knife-edge
[LONDON, 20 September 2006] - On this year's UN International Peace Day (21 September, 2006) Save the Children pressed for a peaceful resolution to the Somali crisis that would lead to a degree of stability - something that has eluded a whole generation of Somali children.
Peace talks in Khartoum between the Transitional Federal Government and the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts have not yielded any firm political agreement.
“If the current stand-off ignites into full open conflict, the resulting humanitarian crisis could easily dwarf that experienced in 1991, leaving hundreds of thousands of children at risk of malnutrition, injury, death, displacement and abuse,” said Ian Trask, Save the Children’s Security Advisor, who has just returned from a mission to Somalia.
Children are most vulnerable and suffer disproportionately as a result of conflict through witnessing and becoming victims of atrocities, as well as through displacement and separation from their families.
El Khidir Daloum, Save the Children’s Country Director for Somalia said: “The longer the parties take to reach a political settlement, the greater the potential for renewed conflict. This would lead to further hardship for children and their families who are already struggling to cope with the effects of the recent drought. We would like to see all parties involved in the crisis make children the focus of attention at this decisive moment.”
Approximately one million children in the South of Somalia are already living in a state of emergency, and in many regions, 20 per cent of under-fives suffer from acute malnutrition. Almost a quarter of children in Somalia die before their fifth birthday. There are currently around 400,000 displaced people within the country - and widespread conflict will inevitably result in further massive displacement.
On the UN International Day of Peace, Save the Children called for:
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All international actors to do all they can to encourage continued constructive dialogue between the Transitional Federal Government and Supreme Council of Islamic Courts, in order to achieve a peaceful resolution to the current crisis.
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The resolutions agreed to on the 22nd of June need to be monitored by independent observers to increase the chances of their being complied with. Transgressions will increase the likelihood of conflict before the planned October 30th peace talks.
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Donor agencies must play a positive role in averting a large-scale conflict within Somalia and be prepared to quickly scale up support to the region, with a focus on emergency preparedness and addressing children’s immediate needs.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=10320&flag=news
Further information
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UNICEF Somalia Monthly Review, September 2006
UNICEF produces monthly reviews of the situation in Somalia concerning children, with a special focus on health, security and political developments in the face of the recent droughts and unrest.
The Review informs the media, other UN agencies, international and local NGOs, the general public in and out of Somalia and people with a special interest in UNICEF and Somalia on the latest developments in UNICEF's work and the general situation in the country. It covers activities as compiled by UNICEF field staff in Somalia in the month under review.
Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=10872
For more information, contact:
UNICEF Somalia
P.O. Box 44145, Nairobi, (00100) Kenya
Tel: +254 20 7623862; Fax: +254 20 7623965
Website: www.unicef.org/somalia/
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News in brief on children and armed conflict around the world
UNHCR: Colombia - Conflict drives displaced to a life of fear on a garbage dump
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=10892&flag=news
Amnesty International: DRC - Children at War, Creating Hope for the Future
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=10699&flag=report
Minority Rights Group International: Minority Rights, Early Warning and Conflict Prevention: Lessons from Darfur
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=10700&flag=report
AlertNet: Afghanistan - NATO raids kill scores of civilians officials say
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=10890&flag=news
Office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict: Special Representative says 2006 ‘a terrible year’ for children in armed conflict
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=10877&flag=news
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