HRW Report on US Renditions in the Horn of Africa

At least 10 victims of the 2007 Horn of Africa rendition program still languish in Ethiopian jails and the whereabouts of several others is unknown, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Several of the detained men were interrogated by US officials in Addis Ababa soon after they were secretly transferred from Kenya to Somalia, and then to Ethiopia in early 2007.

The 54-page report, “‘Why Am I Still Here?’: The Horn of Africa Renditions and the Fate of the Missing,” examines the 2007 rendition operation, during which at least 90 men, women, and children fleeing the armed conflict in Somalia were unlawfully rendered from Kenya to Somalia, and then on to Ethiopia. The report documents the treatment of several men still in Ethiopian custody, as well as the previously unreported experiences of recently released detainees, several of whom described being brutally tortured.

Update: Kenyan police on the 4th of October confirmed that Ethiopian authorities have released eight suspected Kenyan terrorists, saying that the suspects have been reunited with their families. Kenyan authorities rendered the suspects to Somalia in early 2007, where they were handed over to the Ethiopian military and questioned by both US and Ethiopian intelligence.

A good background document on the ‘War on Terror’ in Somalia you can find here.

More info here.

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