Letter to General Stephen J. Townsend - Rep. Omar Leads Letter Calling for Increased Transparency and Accountability for Civilian Casualties from AFRICOM

Letter

Dear General Townsend,
We write regarding AFRICOM's recent publication of the first quarterly report on allegations
and assessments of civilian casualties resulting from U.S. military operations. We welcome this
step to provide increased transparency and public accounting of U.S. military operations and as
part of our national commitment to minimizing civilian casualties. This action is consistent with
the demonstrated interest of Congress for greater transparency in our Nation's use of targeted
force and our efforts to prevent civilian casualties.
It is our understanding and hope that these reports will continue to be available to the public on a
regular basis. We urge you to, wherever possible and consistent with the need to protect
classified information, provide detail on how assessments are made and acknowledge where they
may differ from the assessments of credible, independent non-governmental organizations and
others.
As you are well aware, there have long been significant discrepancies between the civilian
casualty assessments of NGOs and those of the Department. These differences may be explained
by differing methodologies and access to classified intelligence; however, when reporting comes
from credible and sophisticated NGOs with cultural and linguistic capacity, civilian casualty
reports are not easily dismissed. We recognize that in some cases our adversaries may seek to
provide misinformation about civilian casualties as well.
Regardless of the source of such allegations or reports, left unaddressed the perception that the
United States is unconcerned about civilian casualties is damaging to our credibility and
counterproductive to U.S. counterterrorism strategy and objectives. For example, in Somalia the
terrorist group al-Shabaab seeks to leverage inconsistencies in civilian casualty reporting in its
propaganda efforts. Left unaddressed, these discrepancies reduce our trustworthiness and can
negatively impact the confidence of local partners that the U.S. government is committed to
protecting civilian lives and in holding itself accountable.
Accordingly, we recommend that in preparing these reports you provide as much information as
possible to the public about your assessments and why they differ from those of NGOs. This
should include a public accounting of basic questions of methodology and the Command's
definitions of combatants and non-combatants.
Providing additional public transparency around the use of force and civilian casualties is also in
keeping with recent legislation passed by Congress. Section 1703 of the Fiscal Year 2020
National Defense Authorization Act (Public Law 116--333) requires Department-wide reporting
on efforts to mitigate civilian casualties, descriptions of the general reasons for discrepancies
between U.S. Government assessments and those of non-governmental organizations, and the
definitions of "combatant" and "non-combatant" used in the preparation of the report. We urge
you to include all such information in your reporting, as well as descriptions of ongoing
investigations within the AO regarding possible civilian casualties.
Once again, thank you for moving forward to provide these public reports. We look forward to
working with you to ensure that American interests, values, and national security are reflected in
AFRICOM's quarterly civilian casualty reports, and once again applaud your commitment to
transparency and accountability.

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