Hiiraan Online
Saturday, April 16, 2016
MOGADISHU (HOL) – The African Union forces fighting the Al-Qaeda linked militant group in Somalia have shot dead four civilians including two women, in latest of several attacks targeting civilians, officials told HOL Saturday.
Witnesses told HOL that soldiers patrolling a street indiscriminately shot dead the civilians travelling in a car in Bulomarer, an agricultural town in Lower Shabelle region.
Abdwahid Maalin a relative of the four victims killed by troops told reporters that his ailing mother and daughter were among the civilians killed in the attack. Two of his friends were also killed during the
attack.
"Soldiers who have never came into the area before emerged by surprise and started shooting at the car." he told BBC's Somali Service.
African Union soldiers have earlier killed dozens of civilians in separate attacks, largely in Lower Shabelle region.
At least 10 civilians were shot dead by the troops in the coastal Somali town of Marka in July last year, after a bomb attack which targeted an army convoy travelling through the town.
The incident is a major test in the relations between African Union forces and Somali government which so far remains tight-lipped about the civilian deaths that have the potential to inflame anti-foreign forces sentiment in the region which has seen a relative stability since the ouster of Al-Shabab fighters by Somali troops backed by AU forces.
The foreign forces have shot dead two other civilians in Marka in July last year after unidentified men lobbed a grenade at a passing convoy.
AU officials declined comment when contacted for comment on the incident which also follows previous incidents in which soldiers’ convoy overrun civilians crossing streets across the country and sped away unstopped.
On Saturday afternoon, residents buried their dead loved ones, with local elders in the town warned that repeated civilian killings would create mistrust and further strain relations between residents and AU forces, a scenario that may make it hard for forces to pacify the volatile Lower Shabelle region.
The region has seen heavy fighting between allied forces and Al Shabab fighters over the last few months.
The Al-Qaeda linked Al Shabab group often uses such incidents as war propaganda to draw support from locals in a bid to prop up its deadly guerrilla war against AU forces in Somalia.