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| Africa Horn |
| Somalia Vows Action over Alleged Rape by African Union Troops |
| 2013-08-22 |
| [An Nahar] Somalia's government vowed Wednesday to deliver justice in the case of a local woman who alleged she was gang raped by African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... troops and Somali soldiers. "My team and I are committed to getting to the bottom of this case, and all other allegations of sexual violence," Somalia's minster for human development, Maryan Qasim, said in a statement Wednesday. "We want perpetrators of crimes to be brought to justice and to build a society where the rights of every citizen are protected." Qasim, the head of a government team probing the case, distanced herself from an audio recording in Somali media in which she appeared to angrily criticize rape victims for publicizing their cases in the press. Instead, she said she had been "misquoted and misrepresented", and that she had instead been stressing the need to "protect each and every rape victim's identity". "Rape in all its forms is totally unacceptable," Qasim added. "The government cannot tolerate such incidents, no one should be allowed to violate the rights of Somali women." Late last week a Somali woman alleged she was kidnapped by three soldiers from the national army, blindfolded and forced into a car, before being handed over to African Union troops to be repeatedly raped. The unnamed woman, in her late 20s with a young baby, told Somali media that she was unconscious during the attack and says she does not know how many men raped her. |
| Posted by:Fred |