• Human Rights in Somalia

    Somalia’s long-running armed conflict continues to leave civilians dead, wounded, and displaced in large numbers, although the Islamist armed group al-Shabaab lost ground in 2012. Both al-Shabaab and the forces arrayed against it—a combination of Somali government security forces, troops with the African Union Mission in Somalia, Ethiopian government forces, and allied militias—committed abuses, including indiscriminate attacks harming civilians and arbitrary arrests and detentions. In areas under its control, al-Shabaab administered arbitrary justice and imposed harsh restrictions on basic rights. Improving security remains a serious challenge for Somalia’s new government, which came to power in August, at the end of the political transition period.

  • Farhia, a Somali woman who is now eight-months pregnant, was deported to Somalia from Saudi Arabia on January 29, 2014 after working for 10 years as a domestic worker. The Saudi authorities have deported at least 12,000 people to Somalia since January 2014 without allowing any to make refugee claims. Mogadishu, Somalia. February 8, 2014.
    © 2014 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch
    Saudi Arabia: 12,000 Somalis Expelled
    Saudi authorities have deported more than 12,000 people to Somalia since January 1, 2014, including hundreds of women and children, without allowing any to make refugee claims. Saudi Arabia should end the summary deportations, which risk violating its international obligations not to return anyone to a place where their life or freedom is threatened or where they face other serious harm.
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    • Life Under al-Shabaab
      Apr 19 2010 - 10:12

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    World Report 2013: Somalia
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Somalia

  • Kenya: Halt Crackdown on Somalis
    Apr 11, 2014

    Kenyan police and other security agencies should stop arbitrary arrests and detentions, extortion, and other abuses against Somalis during security operations,  Human Rights Watch said.

  • Kenya: Plan to Force 50,000 Refugees Into Camps
    Mar 26, 2014
    The Kenyan authorities should reconsider a new plan to forcibly move 50,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers from cities to overcrowded and underserviced refugee camps. News media reported that Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku made the announcement on March 25, 2014, two days after unidentified attackers killed six people in a church near Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa.
  • Saudis' Mass Expulsions Putting Somalis in Danger
    Mar 18, 2014
    In 2013, Mohamed, a 22-year old Somali, was making a living washing cars in Saudi Arabia. Late that year, due to increasing government pressure on employers of undocumented workers, he was fired. In December, after several weeks without a job, Mohamed handed himself over to the police. He spent the next 57 days detained in appalling conditions.
  • Dispatches: Somalia - Firing squad on the football field
    Mar 13, 2014
  • In Somalia, rape is "normal", but the government can change that
    Mar 7, 2014
    Maryam, a 37-year-old single mother who was gang raped in late 2012 in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, told us that she regretted going to the police almost as soon as she got to the police station.
  • A First Step Toward Ending Somalia’s Rape Epidemic
    Feb 20, 2014
  • Dispatches: Meet 1 of the 12,000 Somalis Expelled from Saudi Arabia
    Feb 20, 2014
  • Saudi Arabia: 12,000 Somalis Expelled
    Feb 18, 2014
    Saudi authorities have deported more than 12,000 people to Somalia since January 1, 2014, including hundreds of women and children, without allowing any to make refugee claims. Saudi Arabia should end the summary deportations, which risk violating its international obligations not to return anyone to a place where their life or freedom is threatened or where they face other serious harm.
  • Q&A: What it's Like Researching Rape in Somalia
    Feb 13, 2014
    Samer Muscati, who researches the plight of women in conflict and emergency situations, recently spent time in one of the world’s most dangerous cities: Mogadishu, Somalia. There, he researched the crisis of sexual violence against women for a report, “Here, Rape is Normal,” and was part of a team that interviewed more than two dozen women. Muscati talks to us about women in Somalia, how rape is a horrible symptom of a greater problem, and ways to advocate with a government in a war-torn country that can barely exercise control over its capital city.
  • Somalia: Women Shouldn’t Live in Fear of Rape
    Feb 13, 2014
    Somalia’s new cabinet should urgently adopt meaningful reforms to confront rampant sexual violence, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Over the past year, women and girls endured high levels of rape and sexual abuse, including by government soldiers, in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.
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