The African Union mission in Somalia said Monday its troops had killed six people in a minibus which refused to stop at a checkpoint, responding to accusations it had gunned down civilians.
AMISOM troops have been accused by local officials of killing 11 civilians in two separate incidents in southern Qoryoley and Marka.
In the first, Qoryoley traditional elder Mohamed Maow said AMISOM “destroyed a civilian minibus, which was carrying vegetables to Mogadishu, with a missile. All the six passengers including the driver of the minibus have died.”
According to the UN mission, its troops had set up a checkpoint in the region on Saturday after they came under mortar attack and noticed “an unusual movement of vehicles … believed to have been ferrying Al-Shabaab fighters.”
“A minibus approaching the roadblock was ordered to stop but the driver defied the order and reversed the vehicle in haste, forcing our troops to shoot, killing six people in the minibus,” AMISOM said in a statement.
Another elder, Moalim Ahmed Idris, said an AMISOM vehicle killed a mother and her four children in Marka.