Armed and insecure

educed by almost half as incidents of shelling in densely-populated Mogadishu between troops
from the African Union Mission in Somalia and non-state armed group Al-Shabaab became less
frequent”. 597 The situation continued to improve in 2013 (41 incidents, 408 casualties, 82 per cent
of whom were civilians). 598 In both 2012 and 2013, Al-Shabaab in Somalia was “the world’s 5th
largest non-state user of explosive weapons”; the latter year included 11 suicide bombings. 599
Since, the percentage of civilian casualties has oscillated drastically: from 82 per cent in 2013
to 46 per cent in 2014 and 64 per cent in 2015. By other measures, there was some stability:
44 incidents, 620 casualties (including from aerial explosive weapons and suicide attacks) and
a ranking of 12 th in 2014; and 45 instances of explosive violence with 700 casualties, rendering
Somalia the 13 th most affected country in the world in 2015. 600 It should also be noted that in recent
years Somali territory has been host to one of four international coalitions in the world that use
explosive weapons (AMISOM), even if earlier potentially illegal patterns of use have subsided. 601
Somalia has likewise been highly affected by landmines, cluster munitions and other explosive
remnants of war (ERW). 602 Between 1999 and the end of 2014, Somalia (excluding Somaliland)
suffered at least 3,094 mine/ERW casualties, with 1,149 killed and 1,518 injured. 603 In 2014
alone, 30 were killed and 54 injured; over 83 per cent were civilians, and almost half were
children. 604
DRONES
One of the forms of explosive violence in Somalia comes from the sky: US armed drones have
been recorded as being in use over Somalia since 2011 (at that point launched from Ethiopia).
This is a case of new technology continuing standing policy: the US has been utilising explosive
weapons in Somalia for decades—since before the infamous ‘Black Hawk Down’ in 1993,
through to air strikes in the south targeting Al-Qaeda in 2007—and continues to have extensive
involvement in Somalia. 605
597 “At the same time, a sharp rise in IED and grenade incidents was recorded in neighbouring Kenya as a result of a spillover in violence related to the
ongoing conflict in Somalia.” AOAV, ‘An Explosive Situation, Monitoring explosive violence in 2012’.
598 Even though it rose to seventh place globally, as dynamics in other countries also shifted. AOAV, ‘Explosive events, monitoring explosive violence in 2013’,
April 2014, http://aoav.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/AOAV-Explosive-Events-2013.pdf.
599 Ibid.
600 AOAV, ‘Explosive States, monitoring explosive violence in 2014’, May 2015, https://aoav.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AOAV-Explosive-Statesmonitoring-explosive-violence-in-2014.pdf;
AOAV, ‘Unacceptable Harm: AOAV’s Explosive Violence Monitor 2015’, April 2016, https://aoav.org.uk/wp-content/
uploads/2016/04/Unacceptable-Harm-AOAVs-Explosive-Violence-Monitor-2015.pdf.
601 In 2015, the other coalitions were MINUSMA in Mali, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and the US-led coalition against al-Qaeda and ISIS-linked elements in
Iraq and Syria. AOAV, ‘Unacceptable Harm: AOAV’s Explosive Violence Monitor 2015’.
602 Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor, ‘Somalia, mine action’, November 2015, www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2016/somalia/mine-action.aspx. Cluster
munition remnants have been found along the border with Ethiopia, and are probably left over from the border conflict there decades ago: Cluster Munitions
Convention, ‘5th Meeting of States Parties to the Cluster Munitions Convention’ September 2014, www.clusterconvention.org/files/2014/09/Somalia.pdf.
603 For the remaining 347 casualties it was not known whether they survived their injuries. Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor, ‘Casualties and Victim
Assistance’, July 2015, www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2016/somalia/casualties-and-victim-assistance.aspx.
604 Ibid.
605 See for example: War is Boring, ‘Somalia’s Got a New Commando Squad’, July 2014, https://warisboring.com/american-commandos-secretly-training-thenew-somali-army-861e0f87cd86#.langt9vaa;
Foreign Policy, Exclusive: U.S. Operates Drones From Secret Bases in Somalia’, July 2015, http://foreignpolicy.
com/2015/07/02/exclusive-u-s-operates-drones-from-secret-bases-in-somalia-special-operations-jsoc-black-hawk-down/.
132 PAX ! Armed and insecure