Somalia: The forgotten Victims of Civil War

By Nicholas Tago

NAIROBI---The war ravaged Somalia continues to earn notoriety due to the existence of militia and continued piracy off its coast but what goes unnoticed is the minority groups, whose rights continue to be violated on unprecedented scale.

A new report by the London-based Minority Rights Group International chronicles a series of human rights violations of ethnic and religious minorities, including extra-judicial killings, rape and reported beheadings. The report---No redress: Somalia’s forgotten minorities—released today in Nairobi is a sad tale of the current woes of the minorities in the current conflict. Unlike the majority of the population, the minorities lack protection from the traditional clan structure.

The report says that while Somalia frequently makes headlines over the problem of piracy, the plight of the country’s ethnic and religious minorities is shocking and yet little known.

“Tens of thousands of minorities have been displaced from south-central Somalia due to the civil war”, says Mark Lattimer, Minority Rights Group’s Executive Director. “Now they are vulnerable to renewed abuse in IDP camps”.

Lattimer added: “There is a well known saying in Somali, which goes: ‘No one will weep for you. No one will avenge you. That is the reality of the country’s minorities”.

In compiling this report, the researchers visited IDP camps in Puntland, north-eastern Somalia in 2009. They were confronted with the stark reality of continued rape of minority women by the men from the majority community and occasionally by the police or military officers.

Whereas the majority of the Somalia community comprises the Darod, Dir, Hawiye Rahanweyn clans who traditionally hold social and political power, the minorities include the Bantu, Benadiri and Gaboye, as well as religious minorities such as Christians. The UN says that despite the minorities comprising a third of the country’s population, they continue to be marginalized and excluded from mainstream life.

It does not help matters that the al-Shabaab militia has repeatedly carried out attacks in the past year against the minorities, notably Bantus and Christians.

As part of its recommendation, the report calls for the inclusion in the future new constitution of Somalia of specific recognition of the country’s minorities and their rights to equality as recognized by international human rights standards.