Off the wire
• Roundup: African leaders push for digitized economies  • Madagascar police seize 260 baby turtles  • Spanish stock market falls 0.08 pct, closes at 8,524 points  • Death penalty reinstatement to rule out Turkey's EU membership: Austrian chancellor  • News Analysis: Trump could win White House if turning election into referendum on Clinton: experts  • Roundup: European commissioner urges for Greek debt relief deal by year end  • Iran rejects UN report on nuclear deal implementation as "imbalanced, biased"  • 1st LD Writethru: Probing shows Nice attacker's "recent interest" to radical movement, but no evidence of links to IS  • UN chief calls for volunteer work for a better world  • Lithuania unprepared for extreme situations: report  
You are here: 　 Home

AU force probes death of 14 civilians in southern Somalia

Xinhua, July 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Africa Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is investigating reports that its troops on Monday killed 14 civilians and injured three others in Wardiinle location, 30 kilometers west of Baidoa town in southern region.

AMISOM force Spokesperson Joe Kibet told Xinhua that there was a report of incident between AU forces and Al-Shabaab in the area where the incident occurred.

"We are still gathering information on this incident. We will issue a statement later but I can confirm that there is a report of incident between our forces and Al-Shabaab militants in that location," Kibet said.

The civilians were reportedly killed by Ethiopian contingent which is part of the pan African body.

Former Wardinle Commissioner Abdukadir Ali Hassan said the civilians were killed by the Ethiopian contingent which is part of the AMISOM.

"The deceased were all my relatives and family members including my father. They were staying at a house where they were praying for sick person there. There was no fighting between Al-Shabaab and AMISOM there, but Ethiopian soldiers killed 20 of them and injured three others," Hassan said. Endit