COMMON ANALYSIS
Last update: October 2025
In armed conflicts, the targeting of civilians may have a nexus to one of the grounds for persecution according to the refugee definition. Therefore, refugee status may be granted. Such targeted violence, furthermore, would not be considered ‘indiscriminate’.
Reference period: The following assessment for the applicability of Article 15(c) QD/QR is primarily based on the EUAA COI report ‘Somalia: Security situation’, published in May 2025 and concerning the reference period 1 April 2023 – 30 March 2025. Some indicators, mainly referring to data until 31 July 2025, are added during the finalisation of the document based on the COI Update 2025.
All of the elements under Article 15(c) QD/QR (Figure 2) have to be fulfilled in order to grant subsidiary protection in accordance with this provision.
This guidance should be considered valid as long as current events and developments fall within the trends and patterns of violence observed within the reference period of the mentioned COI report. New events and developments that cause substantial changes, new trends or geographical shifts in the violence, may lead to a different assessment. The security situation in a given territory should always be assessed in light of the most up-to-date COI available.
Figure 2. Article 15(c) QD/QR: Elements of the legal assessment.
