Donald Trump's administration has increased frequency of airstrikes in Somalia: Reports

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, US President Donald Trump and his administration have significantly increased the real-life deployment of air power in Somalia. According to reports, Amnesty International has claimed that this escalation of airstrikes by the United States is killing civilians with impunity and that reality does not match the rhetoric being promoted by Trump.

Increase in frequency of airstrikes

As per reports, Daphne Eviatar, director of Amnesty International's security with human rights program has claimed that there has been an escalation of strikes in Somalia and that these have coincided with a huge spike in numbers of civilians killed by the US in these strikes.

According to reports, Amnesty International has come out with a news release that has spoken about the body count due to these alleged strikes. Amnesty International has claimed that a February 2 airstrike killed an 18-year-old woman, Nurto Kusow Omar Abukar when an ‘air-dropped-weapon fell on a family of five that had just sat down for dinner. The airstrike also allegedly injured two of her sisters, aged 12 and 7.

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As per reports, the father of the deceased, Kusow Omar while talking to Amnesty said that he never expected or imagined the airstrike hitting them. He added that sand and smoke-filled his eyes and that he felt his house had collapsed.

According to reports, in March 2017, Trump gave increased freedoms to the US military to carry out airstrikes in Somalia. Since Trump's inauguration, there have been 234 reported airstrikes in Somalia and 43 of them have involved civilian casualties. According to Airwars, which is a UK based monitor, the United States has carried out 38 airstrikes in Somalia this year and if the current frequency of airstrikes continues, then the Trump administration will carry out almost 152 airstrikes in Somalia this year which is nearly double of the total number of airstrikes carried out in Somalia last year.

(Representative Image) (Image Credit Pixabay)

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