Somalia vows to investigate the recent Kenyan raid on Jilib that killed children
Somalia has on Wednesday promised to investigate the recent Kenyan raid on Jilib which has allegedly killed civilians including young children.
Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said his government will immediately investigate the circumstances surrounding the Kenyan air raid on Jilib town, Lower Juba, last Sunday.
The PM who held a press conference in Mogadishu after meeting a father of the alleged five children killed during the Kenyan raid admitted that civilians were killed including five children of the same family after Kenyan jets bombed Jilib town.
Ali sent condolences to the families and relatives of the victims specifically Abdullahi Maalim Hussein whose five children were killed in Jilib during the recent Kenyan raid.
Ali, however, stated that his government will not accept any civilian casualty as the battle against the Al-Shabaab rebel groups intensifies in several fronts in the country.
His sentiment comes a day after Somalia announced that it was seeking clarifications from Kenya whose warplane carried out the attack.
Kenyan fighter jets bombed the rebel held town, killing five children of the same family last Sunday.
Kenya military acknowledged the Sunday attack on Jilib but claimed it has only killed militants.
In an interview with Bar-kulan, Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya Mohamed Ali Noor on Tuesday said Somalia has raise the issue with the Kenyan government, saying that they asked for clarifications on the circumstances surrounding the raid including reports that it killed children during the raid.
Noor said he met with Kenyan officials to discuss the issue, adding that Kenya promised to form a committee to investigate the incident.
The ambassador further said that it was unacceptable for civilians to be hurt in Kenya’s air bombardments in southern Somalia, promising that his government will set up an independent commission to look into the incident.
On 30 October last year, Kenyan jet fighters attacked rebel positions in the same town, claiming to have killed 14 rebel fighters but aid agencies later revealed that the raid killed civilians.
Aid agencies in the area said most of the victims were women and children in a camp for intently displaced people in Jilib town. Kenya denied killing civilians in the raid.
Kenyan troops entered Somalia in October in pursuit of Al-Shabaab militant group amid fears that Somalia’s 21-year-old civil war was spilling over the border, threatening Kenya’s security.
Somalia’s President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed immediately faulted the Kenyan incursion into Somalia, saying that both his government and the Somali people have not approved the Kenyan incursion.
