A resounding loss in North Carolina combined with a narrow victory in Indiana dented if not doomed her hopes of convincing superdelegates to disregard Obama’s lead in delegates, states won and popular vote and nominate her. More on Analysis: Clinton loses NC, best chance to upset Obama
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: A government spokesman says hundreds of Ethiopian Woyanne troops have died fighting the Islamist insurgency in Somalia.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Wahide Belay said Tuesday that Ethiopia has about 3,000 troops in Somalia. More on Hundreds of Woyanne troops have died fighting Islamist insurgents in Somalia
Press TV -Heavy clashes between government-backed Ethiopian Woyanne forces and Somali fighters have left more than 16 Ethiopian waoyannes dead, news reports say. The attacks — on a military base in north Mogadishu located near a former pasta factory — killed 16 Ethiopian s Woyanne soldiers, prompting hundreds of other troops to escape from the base while spraying gunfire at Somali civilians. More on 16 Woyannes die in Somali bloodshed
Kenneth Oduor Nairobi, Kenya
Civilian population in Somalia has been targets of human rights abuses. This is according to a report released by human rights watch group, Amnesty International in Nairobi today. The Amnesty International report details the kinds of abuses that civilians go through in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The report further accuses all the parties involved in the Somali conflict of being involved in human rights violations.
Because the international organizations operating in that country (Somalia) are under pressure not expose the human rights violations, it is difficult to determine the extent of these blatant violations of rights and abuses”, the group said in its report. The report indicts Ethiopian troops currently operating in the war ravaged horn of Africa country of taking part in abuses against civilians. The Ethiopian troops have been traversing the width and breath of Somalia since they helped the western backed interim government route out the Union of Islamic Courts troops two years ago.
The Amnesty international report brings to the fore the recent events where Ethiopian troops were recently accused of slitting the throats of civilians in a mosque. The Ethiopian government has since denied these allegations.
The report details chilling accounts by civilians about the extent of the kind of human rights abuses the Somalia civilian population is forced to go through as the country degenerates into further anarchy as the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) continues to lose control of the country.
According to an earlier press release appearing on the human rights group’s website, Ethiopian troops allegedly killed 21 civilians in a mosque slitting the throats of some them.
The Amnesty report further points an accusing finger at the Al Shabab militia which it accuses of attacking and killing civilians and constantly threatening the press. The leader of the militia was recently killed in a US air strike a move the militia group vowed to avenge.
The report comes amid another human rights crisis in which government troops fired into a group of protesters killing at least two civilians. The protesters were venting their anger over the spiraling food prices in Somalia.
Ethiopian troops recently detained 41 children. A spokesperson for the Transitional Government of Somalia later reported that 32 of the detained children had been released while nine were handed over to the Somalia police, Criminal Investigation Division awaiting investigations over possible terrorism links.
The Amnesty Human rights state in Somalia report was presented to the press by the group’s Deputy Director of Africa Program Mitchell Kagiri. She called on the TFG to do its mandate as a government; that of protecting human rights and civil liberties of its people. The mandate of the Ethiopian troops came under sharp focus during the release of the shocking report
