Since June 2007, Egyptian border guards have killed at least 32 African migrants trying to cross into Israel, and Israel has forcibly returned at least 139 border crossers to Egypt.

Thank you Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, for providing Human Rights Watch this opportunity to voice our concerns about the dire, and deteriorating, human rights and humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa, and particularly in regard to Somalia and the Somali region of Ethiopia.

Ethiopian, Somali and insurgent forces are all responsible for rampant violations of the laws of war in Mogadishu, causing massive suffering for the civilian population, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch urged the UN Security Council during its current deliberations on Somalia to include a strong civilian protection mandate in any peacekeeping mission.

The Ethiopian military has forcibly displaced thousands of civilians in the country’s eastern Somali region in recent weeks while escalating its campaign against a separatist insurgency movement, Human Rights Watch said today. Both the government and rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) must protect civilians and ensure their access to humanitarian relief.

Human Rights Watch letter (March 22, 2007) to Amolo requesting further details regarding issues of concern related to the Somalia crisis, particularly the arbitrary detention, deportation, and apparent enforced disappearance of dozens of individuals who fled Somalia in December 2006 and January 2007.

Kenya, Ethiopia, the United States and the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia cooperated in a secret detention program for people who had fled the recent conflict in Somalia, Human Rights Watch said today.

Michael Clough, Africa Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch, testified before Congress regarding the human rights situations in Ethiopia and Eritrea based on reporting from two recent missions to Ethiopia by HRW researchers and ongoing monitoring of human rights conditions in Eritrea.

Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned about the treatment of more than one hundred Eritrean citizens forcibly repatriated from Libya during the last two weeks of July.