NEWS & VIEWS
U.S. Armed Attacks in Somalia are Illegal
Grotius – Center for International Law and Human Rights
News Update
30 March 2019
United States Armed Attacks in Somalia are Illegal
Today, Grotius – Center for International Law and Human Rights published a report titled “Nothing Like the Sun: Illegality of American Armed Attacks in Somalia and Climate’s Effects in the Country”. It relates to the United States army use of force in Somalia, the CIA’s quest to increase its armed activities to include Africa, and the devastating consequences of the drought on Somali society and economy.
The Africa Command of the United States military has been engaged in armed attacks in Somalia in violation of international law. The first reported armed attack in Somalia was in 2007. They increased during the Obama administration and intensified under Trump’s. United Nations Security Council resolution 1744 of 21 February 2007 adopted unanimously under chapter VII of the United Nations Charter authorized African Union member states to take necessary measures to assist the Somali authorities to reach reconciliation with the various armed groups in the country and restore order when needed.
The American official justification for use of force in Somalia against suspected armed groups is based on the post 11 September 2001 paradigm of combating global terrorism, specifically the 18 September 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force Resolution. The United States military has invoked this rational although the Somali government is an ally of the United States that receives American funding and military training and despite the fact that no one in Somalia had attacked the United States or has been planning to do so.
The Trump administration has designated areas in Somalia as combat zones, with no clear basis either in American law or international law. This administration has also reduced constrains applied to the military’s use of force in previous years and decided not to publish information about casualties of armed attacks.
The report relates to the CIA’s quest to increase its armed activities in various parts of the world, including in Africa, and the legal problems that this desire generates. A non-military organ of the United States government, the CIA’s personnel use of force in combat zones involving the United States military amounts to civilians taking direct part in hostilities. As such they could be a legitimate target for lethal armed attacks and, if captured by the adversary, they would not enjoy the status of prisoners of war and the safeguards attached to it. In non-battlefield zones, the CIA’s armed activities are plainly illegal and form assassinations.
Somalia is considered one of the poorest states on the planet. The United Nations Department of Economic & Social Affairs places Somalia with the least developed countries in the world estimating its Gross National Income per capita at $2,460. The World Bank categorizes Somalia together with the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) whose GNI per capita is less than $2,323. Somalia has no weapons of mass destruction. No national intelligence agency in the world or international specialized organizations have alleged that the country is in the process of acquiring such weapons.
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton claimed in a 13 December 2018 presentation at the Heritage Foundation, Washington D.C. that the aim of the new Africa policy of Trump’s administration is to counter Russian and Chinese influence in the continent:
Although Somalia is experienced with past difficult weather conditions the drought of recent years has contributed significantly to devastating Somali society and the country’s economy. A United Nations commissioned study produced by scholars from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and John Hopkins University has estimated that between October 2010 and April 2012 the drought in Somalia has been a major cause for the death of about 258,000 people, 133,000 of them children under the age of 5. According to 2018 reporting of the British newspaper The Telegraph Somalia’s drought of the past several years has been the worst in its history affecting also neighboring states.
For additional information, please contact:
Marwan Dalal, Executive Director