Human Rights Watch called on AMISOM to carry out "thorough and transparent investigation” into the incident before reaching conclusions.
"If AMISOM and the troop-contributing countries involved are truly committed to scrutiny of their conduct, they should ensure that the investigation includes more than just questioning of their own soldiers and that witnesses can speak freely, without fear of reprisals,” Laetitia Bader, a spokesperson for Human Rights Watch in Kenya, told Al Jazeera.
The Somali government is defended by the African Union’s 22,000-strong AMISOM mission against the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab, which has vowed to overthrow the country’s fragile Western-backed authorities.
Confronted with AMISOM’s superior fire power, al-Shabab fighters were chased out of Mogadishu in August 2011.
After a relative calm in the Somali capital, al-Shabab has ramped up attacks in recent months, taking advantage of the apathy of the AMISOM mission and the weakness of Somalia ‘s central government.
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This story from Al Jazeera was supplied to AllAfrica under an agreement with the African Media Agency.
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