[JURIST] Soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) [official website] have been sexually exploiting and assaulting Somali women, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] reported [press release] Monday. The abuses have allegedly occurred on two AMISOM military bases in the Somalian city of Mogadishu. According to the report, Ugandan and Burundian soldiers have used their positions of power to sexually abuse Somali women, displaced by conflict and famine, who come to the bases seeking food, water or medical assistance. To stop the exploitation, HRW has called on AMISOM to implement a zero-tolerance policy towards unlawful activity on their bases. “The AU can no longer turn a blind eye to the abuses on AMISOM bases,” said HRW’s women’s rights director, Liesl Gerntholtz. “[I]t’s undermining the very credibility of the mission.”

The African Union (AU) [official website], the international union that heads AMISOM, was founded in 2001 and launched [AU backgrounder] in 2002. The AU signed a joint agreement [JURIST report] with the UN in February to prevent conflict-related sexual violence in Africa. The AU came under international criticism earlier that month when it called on [JURIST report] its member states to support its declaration [text; PDF] that serving heads of state should not be subject to trial in the International Criminal Court [official website]. This declaration was denounced [JURIST report] by Amnesty International [advocacy website] in October 2013 as “political interference” with justice.