Desperate journeys: Syrian refugees fleeing Israel’s assault on Lebanon

Al-Bara, Syria – Musa Baghdadi paid $6, 000 for the privilege of exchanging one bombardment for another. “I paid to escape the shelling in Lebanon to reach my village, which is also under bombardment by Assad’s army”, he tells Al Jazeera at his modest, one-storey home in al-Bara, western Idlib.

In the 12 years since the Baghdadi family fled the Syrian government and found refuge in Lebanon, the little house has not performed well. It has been severely damaged by shelling by al-Assad regime forces and currently has no windows; all will need to be replaced. It’s not as bad as many of Baghdadi’s neighbours have suffered, though – many houses nearby were destroyed.

Baghdadi, 64, is just one of more than a quarter of a million Syrians who are thought to have returned to Syria since last month’s start-up Israeli assault. The precise number has been placed at 253, 284 by local media reports.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), based in London, reports that there have now been 176 Syrian refugees killed in Lebanon as a result of the ongoing and intense Israeli incursions on Lebanese territory, including 33 women and 46 children.

So, after 12 years in Lebanon, Baghdadi returned with his wife and four grandchildren, aged 11 to 14, to their home village of al-Bara, located near the front lines of Syrian regime forces. The children’s father – Baghdadi’s son – was killed in 2012 when their home came under bombardment, and their mother has since remarried and remained in Syria.

Musa Baghdadi and Warda Yunis with their four grandchildren, having finally reached their old home in Al-Bara town, Idlib]Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]

Lebanon’s return trip was not always simple.

When Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon on September 21 exploded in full force, Baghdadi had already taken his family from their new home in Nabatieh, a village in Nabatieh. The Israeli army had already opened fire on the location on August 23 as part of the nearly daily firefights between Hezbollah and Israel across the border since Israel’s occupation of Gaza began in October of last year.

The family headed first to the village of Ghazieh, south of Sidon, about 30km (18.5 miles) away. Because of the congested traffic jammed by people fleeing al-Duwayr, they were forced to sleep on the pavement of a Sidon street that night.

“We rented a house for $350 for a week the following day to a mountain near Sidon.” It had no water or electricity, but it was still better than staying on the street”, Baghdadi says.

His account contrasts with those of other Syrian and Lebanese refugees who claim landlords are raising rents to profit from their situation.

Baghdadi
Musa Baghdadi and Warda Yunis walk through the ruins of their hometown, al-Bara, in Syria with their grandchildren]Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]

An ‘ amnesty ‘ that is anything but

Baghdadi decided it would be safer to go back to Syria as the Israeli assault on Lebanon grew. It seemed preferable to stay in Lebanon even though the journey to the family’s traditional village in rural Idlib, which would involve crossing through Syria’s under-regime areas, would be risky of being kidnapped or detained by Syrian armed forces members.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad made the 24th promise of amnesty to political prisoners and men of conscription who had avoided military service on September 22, which coincided with the start of the Israeli assault on Lebanon. But observers say this promise, made to encourage Syrians to return home, is not what it seems.

Writing for Al Jazeera, Hadi al-Bahra, president of the Syrian National Coalition, said: “Al-Assad utilises these decrees as a means to deceive the international community that he is making an effort towards stability and reconciliation.

However, a closer examination of these decrees reveals that security organizations have a lot of room to manipulate the fates of people who allegedly receive amnesty.

While the decrees specify amnesty for certain offences, charges levelled by the regime against political opponents, such as” terrorism “and” high treason”, remain excluded, al-Bahra said”. This effectively means that the majority of political prisoners and activists are still outside these laws, rendering them ineffective for facilitating refugees’ return.

Baghdadi and his family appeared to be at risk because they were too concerned about avoiding encounters with the regime’s forces once they reached Syria.

” Keeping my son’s children safe – my son was killed in 2012 by Assad’s forces – was all I could think about, “he says”. For $6, 000, I spoke with a smuggler who assured me that we would reach Idlib without going through any regime checkpoints.

Syrian refugees
Civilians fleeing Lebanon in the moments after crossing into the Syrian opposition-held area after the Aoun crossing in Aleppo countryside, on October 9, 2024]Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]

One week of intense travel

The family traveled seven days to their Syria village, passing through Damascus, Homs, and Hama, before traveling by truck through agricultural roads free of regime checkpoints to Aleppo.

A truck took us on rough roads without turning on the lights out of fear of being detected by the regime’s forces, says Bagdadi, “The nights were terrifying, especially since most of our movements were at night.”

He and his wife, Warda Yunis, 56, arrived in their hometown a week after setting off” with tears of longing and joy”, he says.

” The moment I saw our village, I prostrated in gratitude to God for saving us and bringing us back safely, “Yunis says”. When I arrived at my home, I was shocked by the destruction in my hometown, and I was devastated when I discovered it severely damaged from shelling.

She claims that Yunis pushed her husband to make the decision to leave because she had been eager to go back.

” Twelve years ago, we sought refuge in Lebanon to escape the war, but in my last days there, I witnessed a number of Syrian refugees being killed due to Israeli air strikes, “she explains”. If we had stayed in Lebanon, we would have died. Here, also, we are at risk of death, but I prefer to die in my village, “Yunis says now.

Baghdadi
Musa Baghdadi at his modest, one-storey home in al-Bara. After 12 years away in Lebanon, the house has no windows and is badly damaged from shelling by Syrian forces – but it is still standing]Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]

fees and payments to cross the border

Between September 21 and October 3, 235, 000 people from Lebanon crossed into Syria via land, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

In a statement on Friday, Matthew Luciano, head of the IOM office in Lebanon, said this mass displacement included about 82, 000 Lebanese and 152, 000 Syrians who have left the country by road, in addition to about 50, 000 other individuals, mostly Lebanese, who left from Beirut airport. Some 10, 000 Syrians left via Beirut airport during the same period, and a further 1, 000 have fled by sea.

Before the conflict in Gaza sparked regular firefights between Israel and Hezbollah in October, Syrians had trouble living in Lebanon.

” Before the war in Lebanon, we were uncomfortable, especially after the assaults on Syrian refugees and calls for their deportation, “says Mariam al-Qassem, 60, a mother of four who has lived in Sidon, southern Lebanon, for the past 12 years. After returning from Lebanon where she is tenderly watering the plants she has placed on the outside wall of her home, she begins to make this place a home again. She speaks to Al Jazeera from her home in Ihsim, which is also rural Idlib.

” With the onset of the war, we had no choice but to return and face all the risks we might encounter, “she adds.

Al Qassem
Mariam al-Qassem waters plants at her house in Ihsim, Idlib]Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]

Al-Qassem and her family eluded southern Lebanon’s recent upheaval by moving to the village of Sebline, where they spent four days interning in a UNRWA shelter before calling a smuggler to arrange transportation back to their town of Ihsim in the Idlib countryside.

According to al-Qassem, “when my husband contacted the smuggler, it was agreed that we would give him money in exchange for avoiding any checkpoints of the regime’s army along the way.”

Despite these assurances, however”, when our journey began, we were surprised that the smuggler took us to the Masnaa crossing controlled by Assad’s forces”, al-Qassem says. The couple and their children were left to take their own lives when the smuggler vanished at this point.

She worried about her 20-year-old son Ahmed, who is regarded as a conscription target in Syria, and worried about her husband’s arrest. I would prefer to die in Lebanon rather than cross through the Syrian regime’s checkpoints, “she says.

My husband and son entered a room at the crossing for Syrian security, and they stayed there for about two hours while I waited outside with my daughter, according to al-Qassem. “My eyes never stopped crying because I feared for them,” said the statement.

She continues, “Unfortunately, Syrians were extorted to be allowed to cross Syria, while Lebanese were allowed to enter without any obstacles.”

When al-Qassem’s husband, Omar Mohammed Saleh Fadiel, and their son Mustafa finally emerged from the Syrian security room after paying them off – 200, 000 Syrian pounds ($15) per person, according to Fadiel – they were told to check in with the recruitment office in Damascus, where their son would be required to join the military within 15 days.

Al-Qassem
Mariam al-Qassem with her husband, Omar Mohammed Saleh Fadiel, and their son, Mustafa – finally arrived at their old home in Ihsim, Syria]Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]

The family would have to repeat the same pattern ten more times between there and their village.

” At every checkpoint of Assad’s army that we encountered, we were asked to pay money to be allowed to pass, “Fadiel explains.

He claims that the Fourth Division of the Syrian Army guarded a barrier near Manbij in the Aleppo countryside, where the bus carrying them sat there overnight while they waited for crossing permission, making it one of the most difficult checkpoints they encountered.

” Throughout that night, every now and then, members of the Fourth Division would come up to us, search us, threaten us and demand money to allow us to pass through, “Fadiel says”. At this checkpoint alone, I paid nearly 4 million Syrian pounds]$270]. “Those who cannot pay these” fees “face arrest.

Fadiel
Omar Mohammed Saleh Fadiel at his old home in Ihsim, Idlib]Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]

Homecoming

The family’s journey continued until one day later when they crossed the humanitarian border between the Syrian National Army’s and the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of ethnic militias and rebel groups led by Kurdish-led coalition.

“We had already gotten past the danger that was looming over us,” Fadiel says.

We immediately made our way to our town of Ihsim in the Idlib countryside once we were granted entry to the Syrian opposition-held areas in the eastern Aleppo countryside, he says.

About 1,700 civilians reportedly fleeing the Syrian Civil Defense’s controlled areas of northwestern Syria, according to the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets.

Fadiel and his wife’s recent arrival in their home is a huge relief. I would have traveled back to Lebanon if there had been borders, but he claims that the uncertainty of the unknown fate that awaits me in the areas under the control of Assad’s regime prevented me from returning. After al-Assad’s forces stop shelling his village, Fadiel’s most dearest wish is to now participate in the reconstruction of his village.

He claims he has no desire to leave.

Mariam Al-Qassem and Omar Mohammed Saleh Fadiel with their grandkids
Mariam Al-Qassem and Omar Mohammed Saleh Fadiel in their old home in Ihsim, Idlib]Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera]

To boost Ukraine’s army, feared patrols hunt for potential conscripts

A stone’s throw from advancing Russian troops, Volodymyr refuses to leave his eastern Ukrainian town.

The daily Russian pummelling has killed some of his neighbours and destroyed buildings around his house, but the 34-year-old does not want to move to a safer area because he would be forcibly conscripted.

“I’ll be herded back home but with a gun in my hands,” he told Al Jazeera as fighting raged just 10km (6 miles) away.

He has no qualms about what Ukrainian generals might call unpatriotic behaviour.

“Way too many guys” he knows have been killed, wounded and incapacitated since 2014 when Russia-backed separatists sparked a conflict in eastern Ukraine that killed more than 13,000 people, about a quarter of them civilians, and displaced millions.

A local resident rides a bike near a recruitment advert for the Ukrainian army, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the village of Hrushivka, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region [File: Alina Smutko/Reuters]

Casualties soared after Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.

Russian army chiefs have no misgivings about the loss of tens of thousands of their servicemen for each Ukrainian town they take, mostly in the Donetsk region, where Volodymyr lives.

But he accused Ukraine’s top brass and front-line officers of adopting a somewhat similar approach.

“The commanders care about their bosses’ opinion, not about the men serving under them,” he said, citing conversations with his enlisted friends.

He and other men interviewed for this story asked for their last names and personal details to be withheld because they fear reprisals.

Feared patrols search for conscripts

About 1.3 million Ukrainians serve in the military.

At least 80,000 soldiers of eligible age, 25 to 60, have died since 2022, according to Western estimates.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government does not divulge the official death toll. He has said the army needs to enlist 500,000 out of about 3.7 million men of fighting age who are eligible for service.

These days, many potential recruits all over Ukraine think twice before leaving their homes. If they do, they look over their shoulder for “man-hunting” patrols.

Each patrol consists of police and conscription officers, groups of four to six officials that comb public areas such as subway stations, bus stops, shopping malls, city and town centres. They have also operated at rock concerts, nightclubs and pricey restaurants.

Al Jazeera has witnessed the work of several such patrols. Each time, the officers refused to comment and be photographed.

They approach any man in sight to check his ID and conscription document, a printout or a scan in a mobile phone that has a QR code.

The code gives access to the man’s “conscription status” in a central database.

That status had to be updated by mid-July when a conscription law took effect after months of deliberations and thousands of amendments.

Every potential conscript had to provide details on his address, contacts, health, prior military service, and ability to handle weaponry, military equipment and vehicles.

At the time, hours-long lines formed in front of conscription offices where staff were often interrupted by air raid sirens and blackouts caused by Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.

In May, the government launched Reserv+, an app allowing Ukrainians to update their conscription status from their mobile phones.

Those who did not now face punishment – their driving licences could be revoked or bank accounts frozen. If potential conscripts live abroad, consular services could be denied.

‘They round people up randomly’

Vitaly, a 23-year-old Kyiv native who studies engineering at a German university, was denied services at a Ukrainian consulate, his mother told Al Jazeera.

He was told to ignore the app and return to Kyiv to “personally” update his status, she said.

“Of course, he didn’t because they wouldn’t let him go back” to Germany, she said.

“That’s how Ukraine lost one more national” because her son now plans to apply for German citizenship after graduation, she said.

Back in Ukraine, the patrols are feared by some.

“They round people up randomly, pack them into minibuses,” Boris, a 31-year-old man from the northeastern city of Kharkiv, told Al Jazeera.

He said the patrols are able to detain men without checking their papers.

“Five or six [officers] twist one’s arms and, oops, tomorrow you’re at the Desna boot [camp]” in the northern region of Chernihiv, he said.

Boris could be immune to conscription if he becomes a legal carer for his disabled father, who had a heart attack this year. But he is afraid to even set foot in a conscription office with the paperwork.

“People walk in there and end up in Desna a day later,” he said, referring to the camp Russian forces struck in May 2022 with two missiles, killing at least 87 conscripts.

In late August, an official on patrol detained Andriy, a 27-year-old resident of Kyiv, as he was entering a subway station.

A doctoral student who cannot be drafted, Andriy showed his QR-coded card. But he was forcibly taken to the nearest conscription office, where officers told him he would be on his way to a boot camp “within an hour”, he told Al Jazeera.

“They pressured me skillfully,” he said. “It’s an assembly line of coercion.”

But then a medical doctor refused to sign Andriy off because of myopia and astigmatism, and he was let go to get “additional paperwork”, he said.

“It was a miracle,” he said.

Violence and corruption

There have also been multiple reports of violence towards potential conscripts.

In late May, Serhiy Kovalchuk, a 32-year-old man, was beaten in a conscription office in the central city of Zhitomir and died in hospital six days later, his family told the Suspilne television network.

Officials said Kovalchuk suffered a head trauma during an epileptic fit after several days of heavy drinking.

Frequent violent detentions and the denial of access to the lawyers of potential conscripts constitute human rights abuses, according to Roman Likhachyov, a lawyer and member of the Center for Support for Veterans and Their Families, a group in Kyiv.

However, the use of violence is two-pronged as both conscription officers and potential conscripts resort to it, he said.

“Each case has to be considered differently,” he told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, the conscription crisis is mirrored by the skyrocketing number of desertions. More than 100,000 servicemen deserted since 2022, Likhachyov said, often in groups of 20 to 30 people.

INTERACTIVE-WHO CONTROLS WHAT IN UKRAINE-1728474248
(Al Jazeera)

Draft dodging breeds graft in Ukraine, a country that has been notorious for corruption.

Bribes vary, several men told Al Jazeera.

In some cases, $400 can be paid to a patrol team on the spot to let a man go.

In others, thousands of dollars can buy permission to flee the country or purchase a “white ticket”, a document that makes one immune to the draft.

In August 2023, Zelenskyy fired every regional head of conscription offices throughout Ukraine. Dozens more lower-ranking officers have been sacked and arrested for bribery.

Zelenskyy’s government has also tried to persuade Western nations that accepted hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees to deport each man of fighting age, but their governments refused.

Efforts to attract ethnic Ukrainians from the multimillion members of the diaspora scattered from Poland to Canada also failed.

The government’s enlistment campaign was “wrongly” outsourced to the army, according to Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, a former deputy head of the General Staff of the armed forces.

He believes the government should have started an awareness campaign to “explain, convince, engage the recruits”, but said that ultimately, “there are big problems to be solved”.

Families want justice, ‘blood money’ for AU peacekeeper killings in Somalia

In Golweyn, where his large-scale farm provided maize, bananas, and jobs that helped sustain the community, Omar Hassan Warsame was a larger-than-life figure.

The 65-year-old and a contingent of up to a dozen of his employees would tend to crops on the plot in the Lower Shebelle region, some 110km (68 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu – which helped spare locals from the effects of the region’s recurring droughts.

Ugandan peacekeepers from the African Union (AU) converged on the farm on August 10, 2021. Renowned as a community representative, it was not uncommon for businessmen or officials to approach Omar. The soldiers opened fire on him and four of his employees, but it is unclear why.

“They killed them in cold blood”, Mohamed Abdi, a nephew of Omar’s, told Al Jazeera. He led the neighborhood. A kind, charitable man who provided for the poor and cared for all his neighbours. We were in complete mourning throughout the entire city.

Seven civilians were killed in the Golweyn massacre, which prompted outrage across Somalia. Demonstrators demanded the removal of foreign peacekeepers from Mogadishu and the nearby Lower Shebelle towns. Eventually, a Ugandan court martial sentenced two soldiers to death and three others to lengthy prison terms, before a Ugandan court threw out the death sentences.

The African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISOM, was the organization that provided the peacekeepers. They were first deployed in 2007 to prevent a takeover of the country by al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab, which seeks to overthrow Somalia’s government. Civilians have been the victims of al-Shabab’s attacks despite its regular battles with peacekeepers and government forces. The armed group is estimated to have killed around 4, 000 civilians in shootings, suicide bombings and other forms of violence between 2008 and 2020.

AMISOM peacekeepers, made up of troops from various regions, were primarily charged with preventing al-Shabab’s influence, ensuring security in government-held areas, and coordinating with the newly formed Somali security forces.

Backed by the United Nations, United States and other donor states, the AU peacekeepers have played a critical role in countering threats posed by the armed group.

In May 2022, Ugandan peacekeepers are stationed in Mogadishu under the supervision of the African Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).

But reports about their involvement in abuses against civilians can be traced back to their initial years in the country. Families of victims claim that the AU owes them “blood money” – financial compensation for their suffering, having been renamed ATMIS (African Union Transition Mission in Somalia) in 2022 and planning an end-of-the-year withdrawal from the nation.

“They’re supposed to be peacekeepers, but they murder civilians”, Omar’s nephew Mohamed told Al Jazeera. What distinguishes them from al-Shabab, then?

Compensation for victims

Somalia has been plagued by internal conflict between rival strongmen and a weak central government since President Siad Barre’s overthrow in 1991. Following the rise of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a political and military entity established by local Islamic law courts to govern the country, troops from neighbouring Ethiopia entered Somalia and drove the ICU from power in late 2006. Resistance was sparked by the ICU’s splintering and Ethiopian troops’ presence, which were widely unpopular with Somalis because of war crimes committed during combat. Eventually, hardliner elements of the former ICU went on to establish al-Shabab.

The AU’s peacekeeping mandate was established in 2007 as a result of international efforts to stabilize the nation. Ethiopian troops withdrew the bulk of their forces by early 2009 but always maintained a troop presence in Somalia, before merging them&nbsp, with the AMISOM force by 2014.

The security apparatus in Somalia has received billions in funding from its international partners. The national army’s ability to independently take on al-Shabab has increased over time, and the once-looming threat of an al-Shabab takeover of the capital Mogadishu has diminished considerably.

However, swathes of the nation are still under al-Shabab control, and government security forces struggle to expand their reach despite the nearly two-decade-long presence of African peacekeepers, whose numbers have already reached 20, 000.

The group’s capacity to carry out deadly attacks on civilian and military targets has hardly waned. At least 32 people were killed when a suicide bombing and gun attack occurred in Mogadishu’s popular Lido Beach in August.

With little in terms of concrete results on the ground, donor fatigue has led to cutbacks, including a reduction of $60m last year by the European Union. By the end of the year, ATMIS plans to leave Somalia, according to reports.

Despite the financial woes, the EU successfully delivered $200m in funds meant to compensate the families of the estimated 3, 500 AU peacekeepers who have died in Somalia since 2007.

Mohamed El-Amine Souef
The current CEO of ATMIS is Mohamed El-Amine Souef [File: Fethi Belaid/Pool/AFP]

But there is nothing earmarked for victims of peacekeeper violence, something ATMIS officials have tried to explain to the families.

In a voicemail to Al Jazeera, Comorian diplomat and current ATMIS political head Mohamed El-Amine Souef stated, “I met with]family members] and explained that the general consensus is that ATMIS is struggling financially, to the point where we had to consider terminating the mission.

“As such, the matter of compensation is being jointly dealt with by Addis Ababa and Mogadishu and a technical team that deals with judicial and compensation-related matters”.

Following inquiries, Souef did not respond to how a joint initiative between two governments, whose bilateral ties are currently at their lowest in decades, were made possible due to Ethiopia’s contentious plans to recognize the breakaway republic of Somaliland.

Last year, Souef told Voice of America that ATMIS needed at least $2m from donors to cover compensation requests in almost 80 cases of peacekeeper violence against civilians. The AU has not specified how many of these cases involve killings as well as serious and minor injuries.

Who can be held accountable?

According to local police and media reports, Ethiopian AMISOM troops shot and killed Abdullahi Osman Ige, 77, Ahmed Hussein Elmi, 71, and Abdullahi Ali Hussein, 19, after a fight with al-Shabab in the city of Garbaharey, which is 450 kilometers (280 miles) west of Mogadishu, according to local police and media reports.

The three were unarmed pastoralists out in search of water for their camels. The teenage Abdullahi was shot in the legs and left to bleed to death, according to medical records obtained by Al Jazeera.

In the years that followed, local clan elders in Garbaharey repeatedly requested “blood money” payments from AMISOM/ATMIS for the families of the three.

According to Dalmar Gure, chief editor of the well-known Somali news website Hiiraan Online, “the idea of blood money payments is deeply ingrained in Somali society and has cultural and religious connotations.”

“Before centralised governments ruled Somalia, disputes over murder or grazing land for instance, could be solved with blood money payments. Governments have attempted to resolve the issue by referring disputes to formal courts. But with the fall of the government]in 1991] the practice made a resurgence”.

AMISOM peacekeeper
AMISOM peacekeeping force in Somalia is deploying a soldier from Uganda [Reuters].

In March 2022, more than four years after the Garbaharey killings, the clan elders received a letter from AMISOM’s political head at the time, Mozambican diplomat Francisco Madeira. Madeira acknowledged the request for blood money donations, but she denied being responsible for the killings and claimed that the matter had been forwarded to AMISOM’s “strategic headquarters” in Addis Ababa for a final decision.

“That was the last time they responded to our letters”, Duale Ali, a local clan leader from Garbaharey, told Al Jazeera.

Duale claimed to have visited Souef, Madeira’s replacement, in Mogadishu last October after his mandate expired.

“He is aware of the Garbaharey case”, Duale said. However, when I asked him about compensation, he replied that Ethiopia’s responsibility was not ATMIS’s. He also said that ATMIS could offer development projects and employment contracts as compensation instead. This is insulting because we are talking about human lives.

With local Somali courts having no jurisdiction to try the peacekeepers, Duale has nowhere to turn.

When Al Jazeera reached him, Souef denied making these assertions. “I spoke outside of the topic of compensation, and notified them that in the context of their religious customs they could submit proposals for what is referred to as a ‘ Quick Impact Project ‘ related to water, electricity or building schools that could benefit from funding by allied countries or the UN. Never was it a question of compensating with project contracts, he said.

If Duale’s only avenue for compensation is through Ethiopia, the odds for any atonement are slim, according to one expert.

One cannot realistically expect Ethiopia to provide justice or compensation in this case either, according to Goitom Gebreleul, a researcher and political analyst on the Horn of Africa. “Ethiopia has a terrible human rights situation, and given its track record of dealing with its domestic human rights violations. “Secondly, with the diplomatic fallout between the two countries, Ethiopia wouldn’t have any diplomatic incentive to deliver compensation for its victims in Somalia”.

Legesse Tulu, the communications minister in Ethiopia, did not respond to requests for comment via text message.

AU forces in Somalia
Forces with AMISOM travel in armoured vehicles as they leave a military academy in Mogadishu, in 2019]File: Feisal Omar/Reuters]

International human rights professor Chidi Odinkalu, a professor of international human rights law at Tufts University, explained that prosecuting international organizations like the AU is frequently impossible due to host country agreements regarding immunity.

“There isn’t a universally observed mechanism for peacekeeping operations in place, but immunity is typically agreed upon, making prosecution unlikely”, he said, pointing to a suit filed by Haitian lawyers against UN Nepali peacekeepers and a suit against Dutch peacekeepers in the Balkans as examples.

There are two options, both theoretically and practically. One would be where troop-contributing states retain jurisdiction and thus individual state mechanisms of accountability would come into play. The offending soldier acted outside the commanding officer’s control and assumed an egregious failure of command, he explained, in the case of individual criminal responsibility under international human rights law.

In Somalia’s case, immunity was agreed upon when AMISOM began its mission in 2007, as the status of mission agreement between the two details.

No one has accepted responsibility, they say.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called for Ethiopian troops to be withdrawn from international peacekeeping missions, citing their involvement in numerous atrocities the group has documented in recent years, including what some legal experts say was a genocide of the country’s Tigrayan minority. Ethiopia has for its part refuted accusations of ethnic cleansing and war crimes.

The AU, meanwhile, has publicly acknowledged the importance of enforcing accountability and compensating victims to build trust in the communities they operate in.

AMISOM agreed to establish the Civilian Casualty Tracking, Analysis and Response Cell (CCTARC) in 2012 at the UN’s recommendation. Tasked with keeping tabs on victims of AMISOM violence to ensure accountability, the CCTARC began its work in 2015.

However, the CCTARC does not make data available about the injuries and deaths of AMISOM civilians. In 2018, it was reported as being underfunded and staffed by AMISOM military officers. A communique from ATMIS last year revealed that CCTARC employees had successfully trained in human rights issues, with the trainees mostly clad in military gear.

With the lack of transparency and independent oversight, it is unclear how efficient the body has been at tracking abuses in areas of ATMIS operation. Is it also unclear whether the CCTARC has documented reports of civilian casualties being killed in ATMIS airstrikes, sometimes in al-Shabab-held territory?

The mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) is set to expire this month. It used to track some Somalia abuses. In 2017, it released a report which attributed 95 killings of civilians from January 2016 to October 2017 to AMISOM. Kenya criticized that report as “extremely sensational and carries unqualified allegations that have serious implications for the Kenyan Defence Forces as a professional force,” which was UNSOM’s final detailed report highlighting peacekeeper killings. Since then, there have been occasional mentions of AMISOM killings in UNSOM “monthly briefs”, but none in more than two years.

AMISOM had previously promised to look into a 2021 airstrike that claimed the lives of a mother and her child in the Gedo region before eventually exonerating the Kenyan air force, whose soldiers were charged with any wrongdoing.

Aftermath of an airstrike
The aftermath of a 2023 air attack on a home in the Somali town of El Adde]Courtesy of Omar Abdirahman]

El Adde, a grandfather of al-Shababs and a local school administrator, is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the Kenyan border, where Abdirahman Sheikh Abdullahi, 75, was born. In July 2023, his home was hit by separate Kenyan air attacks nearly two weeks apart, according to his son Omar Abdirahman and medical reports sent to Al Jazeera. The Kenyan air force was also implicated in the attacks, according to Somalia and Kenyan media reports.

Abdirahman and a bystander in the neighbourhood were killed on July 6. On July 18, injured people gathered to mourn the second attack.

The family’s home was destroyed. Seven others were hurt, including the 11-month-old granddaughter and Abdirahman’s wife.

“No one has taken responsibility for my family’s suffering”, Omar explained. “Everyone in the house was a civilian,” said one of the homeowners.

Omar sent Al Jazeera footage and photographs of his family’s demolished home, which showed what he said were remnants of the explosives dropped on the building.

The footage was reviewed for Al Jazeera by Trevor Ball, a former US Army employee who worked in the explosives disposal unit. “The fragments indicate two guided aircraft bombs, and not artillery projectiles”, Ball explained. The bombs don’t go along with typical US/Western or USSR/Russian/Eastern Bloc construction. It is likely that they are produced domestically in Africa”.

Emails to Isaac Mwaura, spokesman for Kenya’s Ministry of Defense, and Isaac Mwaura, government spokesman, were unanswered.

Aftermath of an airstrike
The home demolished by a 2023 air attack in El Adde]Courtesy of Omar Abdirahman]

I “felt betrayed by my country,” the statement read.

Despite their role in overseeing the odd court martial, AMISOM has previously clarified that it would be the responsibility of troop-contributing nations to determine how to properly compensate victims of peacekeeper violence.

At a press conference held in October 2021 to address the Golweyn massacre, former mission head Francisco Madeira stated that “in accordance with its obligations under the memorandum of understanding signed with the African Union, the Ugandan government will talk with the bereaved families to discuss ways to make amends for the lives of those killed.” Uganda’s government and army spokespeople did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Particularly gruesome were the seven farmers’ killings at Golweyn. According to court martial documents, Ugandan soldiers, who refused to express remorse during their trial, shot the victims and then desecrated the bodies by blowing them up with explosives.

The victims were identified in medical records from Mogadishu’s Madina Hospital, which were later identified by Al Jazeera, and contained gruesome images of some of their uncovered remains. They were then transported to the hospital in burlap sacks.

The Ugandan troop contingent spent months negotiating compensation with the victims ‘ families, before quietly delivering a lump sum of $100, 000 to be split among the seven families, in an agreement that stipulates that the families “have unanimously forgiven Uganda and will not ask for anything from the UPDF (Ugandan Peoples ‘ Defence Forces)”.

The Somali and Ugandan governments have signed agreements, according to documents obtained by Al Jazeera. Signed on behalf of the families, the signature of Mohamed Abdi, nephew of Omar Hassan Warsame on whose farm the killings took place, is visible. He claimed to have been coerced into signing the agreement because his family rejected it and that he had been.

“None of the families have forgiven anyone for what happened, and nobody agreed to such a meagre compensation. The loss of harvest to the community itself wouldn’t be covered by that money, Mohamed said, because no farmers would care for the farm.

AU peacekeepers
Ugandan soldiers who are part of AMISOM march through the town of Golweyn in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region, in August 2014]File: Tobin Jones/AMISOM handout/AFP]

Mohamed, a British citizen and a long-term resident of London, claimed that Ugandan and Somali officials had misled the family about the terms of the deal. When the families were hesitant about signing, their lawyer was arrested. Abdullahi Mohamed Nur, the then-Minister of Security, whose own name and signature are also visible on the agreement, prompted Mohamed to sign it after what he perceived as an implicit threat.

“I honestly feared for my life”, Mohamed recalled. He called and harassed us repeatedly. He warned that the Ugandan army was threatening to pull out, and he would hold me responsible if al-Shabab attacked Mogadishu. I begged my relatives to leave the country because they were afraid of it.

” Our own government sided against the families. I personally experienced my country’s betrayal.

Abdullahi Mohamed Nur, who currently serves as an adviser to Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, ignored Al Jazeera’s phone calls and texted requests for comment. Farhan Jimale, a spokesman for the Somali government, did not respond to an email from Al Jazeera.

While ATMIS plans to end its mandate this year, the AU has already pledged to replace it with a new force it has dubbed AUSSOM (African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia).

Egypt will offer to send troops to the new force, but Somalia is determined to expel Ethiopian forces following a dispute between the two nations over a contentious memorandum of understanding Addis Ababa signed with the breakaway republic of Somaliland.

But Dalmar Gure of Somali news outlet Hiiraan Online believes any new force will struggle to instil trust within local communities if victims of previous killings are denied compensation.

The main avenue of atonement in Somali society, which is ignoring blood money, “sends a terrible message to victims who frequently have to live close to the murderers of their loved ones because those soldiers may still be stationed in their communities,” Gure said.

” This adds salt to their wounds, “he feels”, and replacing ATMIS with another force next year won’t inspire confidence among Somalis. “

Taiwan reports surrounded by 153 Chinese military aircraft during drills

Taiwan detected 153 aircraft surrounding its territory as China carried out massive military exercises, according to the self-ruled island’s defence ministry.

The “surge in warplane activity” saw a record number of aircraft spotted in the 25 hours to 6am on Tuesday (22: 00 GMT, Monday), the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement. China’s war games have once more raised tensions with the island and across the region, it noted.

Beijing deployed fighter jets, drones, warships and coastguard ships to encircle Taiwan on Monday. Taipei responded by sending “appropriate forces” to its outlying islands in high alert mode.

Within Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, according to the defense ministry, 90 of the Chinese aircraft were spotted.

‘Nonsense’

Taiwan is considered to be part of its territory, and Beijing has stated that it will never resort to force to subdue it.

China said the one-day drill, designated “Joint Sword-2024B”, was a warning against “separatist acts”. The war games came after Taiwan’s President William Lai Ching-te’s speech from last week that Beijing had denounced.

Lai reaffirmed his commitment to “resist annexation or encroachment” and stated that China had no authority to represent Taiwan in the speech.

“This is a resolute punishment for Lai Ching-te’s continuous fabrication of ‘ Taiwan independence ‘ nonsense”, China’s Taiwan affairs office said in a statement.

Attracting attention

Taiwan’s Premier Cho Jung-tai stated that the manoeuvres were not only a concern for Taipei, but for the entire region.

He told reporters, “Any drills without prior notice will greatly deteriorate peace and stability in the entire region.” “China’s drills not only affect Taiwan’s neighbourhood, but also seriously affect the entire international navigational rights and air and sea space, so attracted the attention of other countries”.

China’s president’s office urged Taiwan to “stop threatening Taiwan’s democracy and freedom from military provocations that undermine regional harmony and stability.”

The United States, an ally to the self-ruled island, noted its concern, even as it launched its own war games in the disputed South China Sea.

The Pentagon slammed China’s drills as “irresponsible, disproportionate, and destabilising”.

However, thousands of US and Philippine marines launched 10 days of joint exercises in the Philippines, which is also locked in dispute with China, on Tuesday.

Video shows North Korea blowing up roads to the South

NewsFeed

As South Korea’s tensions escalate, North Korea has been reported to blow up inter-Korean railroad and roads. The military of South Korea claimed that neither side of the border had suffered any harm as a result of the explosions.