Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., has urged the Pentagon to immediately make amends to a Somali family following an investigation by The Intercept of a 2018 U.S. drone strike that killed a woman and her 4-year-old daughter.
Her call for action follows a December open letter from two dozen human rights organizations – 14 Somali and 10 international groups — calling on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to compensate the family for the deaths. The family is also seeking an explanation and an apology.
The April 1, 2018, attack in Somalia killed at least three, and possibly five, civilians, including 22-year-old Luul Dahir Mohamed and her 4-year-old daughter Mariam Shilow Muse. A U.S. military investigation acknowledged the deaths of a woman and child but concluded their identities might never be known. This reporter traveled to Somalia and spoke with seven of their relatives. For more than five years, the family has tried to contact the U.S. government, including through U.S. Africa Command’s online civilian casualty reporting portal, but never received a response.
“I find it deeply troubling that after the Department of Defense confirmed that a U.S. drone strike killed civilians, Luul Dahir Mohamed and her daughter, Mariam Shilow Muse, in 2018, their family has reportedly yet to hear from DoD — even years later,” said Jacobs, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she serves as ranking member of the subcommittee on Africa. “While the U.S. government can never fully take away their loved ones’ pain, acknowledgment and amends are needed to find peace and healing.”
Jacobs’s call for reparations comes on the heels of the Pentagon’s late-December release of its long-awaited “Instruction on Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response,” or DoD-I, which established the Pentagon’s “policies, responsibilities, and procedures for mitigating and responding to civilian harm.”
The document, mandated under the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, and approved by Austin, directs the military to “acknowledge civilian harm resulting from U.S. military operations and respond to individuals and communities affected by U.S. military operations” including “expressing condolences” and providing so-called ex gratia payments to next of kin.
“We welcome this policy, which is both the first of its kind and long overdue. But like any policy, what’s on paper is just the first step,” said Annie Shiel, the U.S. advocacy director for the Center for Civilians in Conflict, one of the groups that authored the open letter about the Somalia strike. “The real measure of its success will be in implementation, and how or whether it delivers results for civilians – both by preventing a repetition of the devastating civilian harm caused by U.S. operations over the last twenty years, and by finally delivering answers and accountability to the many civilians harmed in those operations who are still waiting for acknowledgement from the U.S. government.”
Although the DoD-I also mentions “ensur[ing] a free flow of information to media and the public” and the need for public affairs personnel to “provide timely and accurate responses to public inquiries and requests related to civilian harm,” the Pentagon did not respond to questions about the letter to Austin, the DoD-I, or Jacobs’s comments. Another set of questions about civilian harm, emailed to the Defense Department in September 2022, also have yet to be answered. “I have pressed for responses to your questions,” Pentagon spokesperson Lisa Lawrence wrote in an email late last month. “As with all queries, it takes time to coordinate.”
In 2022, following increased scrutiny of the U.S. military’s killing of civilians; underreporting of noncombatant casualties; failures of accountability; and outright impunity in Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere, the Pentagon pledged reforms. The 36-page Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan, known in Washington as the CHMR-AP, provides a blueprint for improving how the Pentagon addresses noncombatant deaths but lacks clear mechanisms for addressing past civilian harm. Jacobs — founder and co-chair of the Protection of Civilians in Conflict Caucus — has been one of the foremost elected officials pressing the Pentagon to take greater accountability for civilian casualties. Last July, she introduced the Civilian Harm Review and Reassessment Act, which would require the Defense Department to examine and reinvestigate past civilian casualty allegations, stretching back to 2011, and make amends if necessary.
The 2024 NDAA, passed late last year, included another provision, authored by Jacobs and Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., requiring the director of national intelligence to notify Congress if U.S. intelligence, used by a third party, results in civilian casualties. Jacobs’s efforts also led to a Government Accountability Office assessment of the effectiveness of civilian harm training including an evaluation of the efficacy of current methods. That report, due by March 1, is nearly complete according to Chuck Young, a GAO spokesperson.
“After U.S. military operations have caused civilian harm, victims, survivors, and their families often face significant obstacles to getting answers and acknowledgment from the U.S. government, let alone amends for what happened,” Jacobs told The Intercept, referencing the April 2018 drone attack that killed Luul and Mariam. “I urge the Department of Defense to live up to its responsibility in the CHMR-AP to make amends for past civilian harm and immediately address this case.”
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