SUMMARY

The RRA's (Rahanweyn Resistance Army) targeting of civilians could be understood in the wider context of the armed group’s competition with Aideed’s USC/SNA (United Somali Congress/Somali National Alliance) for dominance of the south-western regions of Somalia; Bay, Bakool, and Hoddur (traditional Rahanweyn clan territories), and in particular of the provincial capital Baidoa.

While the reason for RRA-sponsored one-sided violence is not known, the RRA chaiman Colonel Hassan Mohamed Nur (aka Shatigadud or Shargudud), had earlier warned all commercial, humanitarian and commuters not to travel on the Mogadishu-Baidoa road which he had characterized as not safe for civilians.

When committing one-sided violence, the RRA have targeted public transportation (in particular buses) by ambushing and indiscriminately shooting into the buses as well as launching rocket-propelled grenades at the vehicles.

The violence has occurred in the vicinity around Baidoa; the buses were generally attacked on their way out of Baidoa.

RRA first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1999, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached on 5 January that year when the group aimed a rocket-propelled at a bus in Maayafuulka (south-western Somalia) and killed 26 passengers.