Somalian Genocide

The killings of civilians in Somalia by various combatants during years of civil strife in the country have been deemed by various commentators to amount to genocide because targeted against particular ethnic groups. Accusations of genocide have been made against all sides to the conflict and nations thought to have an interest, including government forces, Islamist fighters, the African Union and the United States.
In 2007, deputy prime minister Hussein Aideed referred to Ethiopian intervention in Somalia against Islamist fighters as a "genocide".
The following year, the UN envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, responding to casualties in the fighting between pro-government and Islamist forces, said that "There is a hidden genocide in Somalia which has sacrificed entire generations".
The Genocide Intervention Network lists Somalia on its website as an area of concern, stating that "Somali civilians remain the targets of atrocities committed by insurgent militias, Somali government forces and criminal gangs."
The Social Science Research Council reported in 2007 that "Somalia is a rare case in which genocidal acts were carried out by militias in the utter absence of a governing state structure." According to the report, Somalia's Bantu population was a target of killing and forced resettlement, as a result of which some 12,000 were granted "persecuted minority" visas by the United States.
African media have also asserted that the killings in Somalia constitute genocide. For example, an October 2010 article in Nairobi's Daily Nation newspaper states the views of Kenyan Deputy House Speaker Farah Maalim that "It is in the interest of the US for Somalia to remain unstable, weak and destitute. That is why they are perpetrating a genocide."

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