Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based organization, in its 113-page report said that since January 2007, residents of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, have been gripped by a terrifying campaign of violence that has killed and injured hundreds of civilians and shattered the lives, homes, and livelihoods of thousands of people. The report accused the Ethiopian troops of systematically bombarding heavily populated areas in Mogadishu in violation of international humanitarian law. The report lamented the UN Security Council’s indifference to this crisis. The International Community should give Somalia crisis the same due attention it is paying to Sudan’s troubled region of Darfur. While the United Nations and African Union were now creating a 26,000-strong peacekeeping-force for Darfur, there appeared to be little enthusiasm for such a mission in Somalia. The African Union pledged more than 8,000 peacekeeping force for Somalia, but only 1,600 troops, all from Uganda, have been deployed in Mogadishu. Even this token peacekeeping Ugandan troop has done little to protect vulnerable civilians.
HRW’s Executive Director Ken Roth asserted that this shameful silence of the International community has added insult to injury.