Kyle Brown

Who is Kyle Brown?

Private Kyle Brown was a Canadian soldier implicated in the death in custody of Somali teenager Shidane Arone.

The Canadian supply depot in Somalia was being looted and Arone was suspected of being one of the looters. Master Corporal Clayton Matchee took a lead role in Arone's torture and murder. The teenager's screams were reported to have been heard throughout the camp. Matchee was taken into custody, tried to hang himself, but only succeeded in causing himself irreversible brain damage. Because of this he was deemed unfit to stand trial. Brown, who played a secondary role, was convicted of manslaughter, and was sentenced to five years imprisonment, along with Dismissal with Disgrace from the Canadian Forces. He served one third of his five-year sentence.

Brown later published a book in which he presented a case wherein he had been made the scapegoat for the incident and the officers who had not intervened were not brought to justice.

An official inquiry in 1997 considered whether mefloquine, an anti-malarial drug that troops were taking, known to trigger psychotic symptoms in sensitive individuals, played a role in Arone's abuse, though the results were inconclusive.