. Ethiopia invaded Somalia two years ago and successfully routed the Islamic militia that seized control of the capital . The HRW report states that the United States `` directly backed Ethiopia 's intervention . '' Since the 2006 overthrow of the Islamic Courts Union , Somalia has suffered from `` unconstrained warfare and violent rights abuses '' by all warring parties . `` All sides have used indiscriminate force as a matter of routine , and in 2008 violence has taken on a new dimension with the targeted murders of aid workers and civil society activists , '' the report states . `` The human rights and humanitarian catastrophe facing Somalia today threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions of Somalis on a scale not witnessed since the early 1990s . '' Heavy fighting in Mogadishu and across Somalia has driven more than a million people from their homes . The lawlessness has also spilled onto the seas off the Horn of Africa , where international vessels are routinely hijacked by suspected Somali pirates who demand large ransoms . Human Rights Watch offers specific recommendations to the Somali and Ethiopian governments , the main militias , and the international
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The United States and other Western powers have `` exacerbated Somalia 's downward spiral '' and must revise their policies in the east African country , a Human Rights Watch report has warned . Recent image of Islamist fighters at a camp in the northern outskirts of Mogadishu The report , released Monday , blames the policies under President George W. Bush for `` breeding the very extremism that it is supposed to defeat . '' `` The new administration of U.S. President Barack Obama should urgently review U.S. policy in Somalia and the broader Horn of Africa and break with the failed approach of his predecessor , '' the report said . It also cites key European governments for failing `` to address the human rights dimensions of the crisis , with many officials hoping that somehow unfettered support to abusive TFG -LRB- Somali transitional government -RRB- forces will improve stability . '' Somalia 's weak transitional government , backed by Ethiopian forces , continues to battle Islamic militias with the fighting concentrated in the capital , Mogadishu . Ethiopian forces have not withdrawn from the country , as required under a recent cease-fire agreement