World
A suicide car bomber has killed 12 people in an attack aimed at African Union (AU) troops in Somalia, an official has said. The BBC reports:
A car laden with explosives was rammed into an AU convoy travelling south-west of the capital, Mogadishu, said local governor Adukadir Mohamed Sidi.
The militant Islamist group al-Shabab said it was behind the attack.
It had earlier vowed to avenge the killing of its leader Ahmed Abdi Godane last week. Godane died in a US air strike. Monday's attack took place on the road between Mogadishu and Afgoye town, some 30km (19 miles) from the capital.
"The car packed with explosives hit one of the armoured trucks," Mr Sidi told the Agence France-Presse news agency. "Twelve civilians in a minibus were killed, and 27 others were wounded," he said.
The BBC's Mohamed Moalimu in Mogadishu says the injured include AU soldiers.
Some African Union troops in Somalia sexually exploited or raped women and girls who are internal refugees, a new report by an international human rights group alleged Monday. The Associated Press reports:
Human Rights Watch said it interviewed 21 women and girls since 2013 who described being sexually abused or sexually exploited by Burundian or Ugandan military personnel in two bases in Mogadishu.
Ten separate incidents of sexual abuse, including rape and sexual assault, and 14 cases of sexual exploitation were documented during the period, the rights group said. Four of the rape cases and one sexual assault involved girls under 18.
The youngest victim was a 12-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by a Ugandan soldier. Several women said the soldiers refused to wear condoms, causing the women to catch sexually transmitted infections as a result, according to the report.
Several also described being slapped and beaten by the soldiers who forced them to have sex. Only two out of the 21 women and girls interviewed filed a complaint with Somali or other authorities, the report said.
