'Zero accountability': US accused of failure to report civilian deaths in Africa

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

'Zero accountability': US accused of failure to report civilian deaths in Africa

US military vows to be more open about activities after allegations that teenager and farmer were killed in Somalia airstrikes

Kaamil Ahmed
Thu 2 Apr 2020 12.12 BST
Last modified on Thu 2 Apr 2020 12.59 BST

Faced with new allegations of killing civilians with drone strikes in Somalia, the US military has announced plans to make its operations across Africa more transparent.

Amnesty International accused the US military on Wednesday of providing “zero accountability” for civilian victims of airstrikes by its Africa command, Africom.

The rights group said its investigations into two February airstrikes that Africom claimed had killed al-Shabaab fighters showed “no evidence” the two victims killed were militants.

According to Amnesty, the victims were 18-year-old Nurto Kusow Omar Abukar, whose house was hit while she ate dinner with her family, and 53-year-old banana farmer Mohamud Salad Mohamud.

“We’ve documented case after case in the USA’s escalating air war on Somalia, where the Africom thinks it can simply smear its civilian victims as ‘terrorists’, no questions asked,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty’s east and southern Africa director.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/02/zero-accountability-us-accused-of-failure-to-report-civilian-deaths-in-africa

[Blues Heron]

1. What will it take for the USA to stop killing innocents?

It's like watching a serial killer murder with absolute impunity again and again. They're addicted to it. I think they like it.