Protection of Civilians: It is too much to kill three of four Al Shabaab

Located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia has been subject to US counterterror military operations since at least 2001, with the first public airstrikes having been carried out in January, 2007. While the country has not experienced an air campaign as intense as the ones in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, the presence and continuously looming threat of US airstrikes have nonetheless become a regular feature of life for many Somali civilians and a source of personal and communal harm. Besides a few high-profile instances, the strikes have not been treated as notable on the international stage. Consequently their broader impact on Somalis has remained largely unexamined.

This report seeks to fill this gap and studies the broader impact of US strikes in Jubbaland territory. The emphasis is on strikes carried out during the Trump administration when airstrikes were most frequent.