Johannesburg – The United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNISOM) has condemned the coordinated suicide bombing attack at a hotel in Mogadishu for which killed dozens of people and injured many more, including five journalists.
Militants Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack which targeted the Dayah Hotel which is frequented by government officials and is located near the Presidential palace.
In an interview with UN News, Joseph Contreras, the spokesperson for the Mission, said the attack provided fresh evidence of the violent extremists' desperate attempts to derail Somalia's electoral process.
Moreover it reflected the terrorists' frustration over their inability to sabotage the recent voting for seats in the two Houses of Somalia's new Parliament.
As for the scene on the ground, he pointed out that first responders arrived at the hotel targeted by the attack "quite quickly and brought the situation under control".
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday called on African Union forces in Somalia (AMISOM) to release the findings of their investigation into the alleged unlawful killings of 14 civilians by Ethiopian forces in July 2016.
More than six months after the incident, people in Wardinle in Somalia's Bay region have received no reports on the investigation, nor compensation for their loss.
On July 17, troops from AMISOM's Ethiopian contingent fired on a hut in Wardinle where men had gathered to pray for a sick villager, killing 14.
Those gathered included village elders, religious leaders, and Islamic school teachers, as well as relatives of the sick man.
Witnesses told HRW they had seen no fighting or Al Shabaab militants in the village that day.
On July 19, AMISOM said that it was investigating the claims and said its preliminary investigations had found that: "AMISOM forces received credible intelligence information of an Al Shabaab radicalisation exercise in the village and went to investigate. The troops were ambushed as they approached the village and intensive fighting ensued. It is not clear at this point in time, if the fighting occasioned civilian deaths, as it is being claimed."
In September, AMISOM informed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) monitoring group on Somalia and Eritrea that an initial inquiry had found that the men were killed in crossfire.
International humanitarian law, or the laws of war, obligates the parties to an armed conflict to take all feasible precautions to minimise harm to the civilian population.
Attacks that target civilians or civilian objects are prohibited, as are attacks that do not discriminate between civilians and military objectives, or that are expected to cause civilian harm greater than the anticipated military gain.
The laws of war require governments to investigate credible allegations of serious violations that may amount to war crimes, said HRW.
"The evident absence of Al Shabaab fighters indicates that the attack on the hut was unlawfully deliberate or indiscriminate, and possibly a war crime.
"The AU and judicial authorities from Ethiopia should work together to ensure those responsible are brought to justice and to prevent such crimes from happening again," HRW said.
AMISOM announced it would start making "amends" to civilians for harm resulting from its military operations.
The Wardinle victims and their families are entitled to amends payments, which do not require a showing of fault, HRW said.
The UN Security Council has called on AU forces to improve their relationship with communities most affected by this conflict.
African News Agency