By Dan Mahanty March feels like a decade and a thousand COVID-19 news cycles ago, so you could be forgiven for having missed the news that on March 31, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) publicly committed to issuing a quarterly public report on civilian casualties alleged to have resulted from U.S. military operations. According to the press release, the…
CIVIC’s MENA and South Asia Director, Sahr Muhammedally, recently published a paper in the International Review of the Red Cross edition, “War in Cities.” In it, Sahr examined lessons learned from the AMISOM and ISAF missions in Somalia and Afghanistan, respectively, and how these lessons can be applied by armed actors to better protect civilians. Abstract: Both…
Since mid-2015, CIVIC’s Africa program has grown from one person in Washington to five people based in the US, Nigeria, and East Africa. And we are poised to continue growing. This growth is a direct result of both the sheer volume and complexity of conflicts across the continent and widespread recognition of CIVIC’s value in…
Sarah Holewinski presenting on Thursday, May 23, 10.30 AM It is an honor to present to this audience today on protection of civilians. My sincere thanks to the Government of Norway for grappling with this issue across years and continents, and to the organizing team led by Hilde Salvesen. My organization—Center for Civilians in Conflict—works…
Newshour looks at the rapid expansion in the use of drone technology in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, and asks whether unmanned warfare needs new rules of engagement. Source: BBC World Service – Newshour Special: Drones
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS CLAIM they’re ultra-precise killing machines that never, ever miss their targets. Outside groups say they’re covered in children’s blood. The fact is no one has a clue exactly how many militants and how many innocents have been slain in the U.S. drone war that spans from Pakistan to Somalia. Remember that before you…
Southern Somalia is a hell for civilians living there, and that was true even before the famine that hit the country this summer. When I was in Mogadishu a few months ago, I saw bombed out buildings in every direction, families huddled in ill-equipped hospitals, and, in one case, a group of kids startled by…
Posted by Scott “No one even helps you bring in the dead; you collect the bodies at your own risk,” a woman called ‘L’ explained to me at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. Fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu has raged on and off for nearly two decades, but never has it been…