MOGADISHU (Halbeeg News) – Families of victims who died at the hands of troops of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) have welcomed the sentences of five Ugandan soldiers who were convicted of taking part in the murder of Somali civilians.
On Friday, a Ugandan court-martial sentenced two Ugandan soldiers to death for killing seven farmers in the Lower Shabelle region. The court also handed three other soldiers 39 years in prison each.
Mohamed Ali Farah, a brother of a victim killed by Amisom soldiers, saying the ruling is paving the way for the prosecution of dozens of Amisom soldiers involved in the murder of unarmed Somali people.
“We are happy to see that justice has been serviced in the first cases levelled against African Union troops operating in Somalia. We need all other Amisom officers suspected of being involved in crimes against humanity to be brought before the justice,” said Farah who spoke to the media.
In a separate interview with BBC Somali Service, the spokesman for the region’s farmers, Hussein Osman Wasuge, told reporters that relatives of the victims and farmers attended the proceedings in the Somali capital.
The case has been dragging since October at the UN and AU headquarters in Mogadishu.
“For us as Somalis, there were no lawyers to represent us but we are happy about the outcome and this should be a lesson for all foreign troops in our country, referring to AMISOM,” one relative told Anadolu Agency via telephone after the sentencing.
AMISOM previously admitted that its soldiers killed farmers during an operation against al-Shabaab terrorists on the outskirts of Golwayn.
The Ugandan martial court has in the past tried its soldiers who are serving under AMISOM in Somalia.
Ugandan soldiers are based in the capital Mogadishu and the Lower Shabelle region.
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