A/HRC/5/5 page 12 violations come as an addition to those directly attributable to the armed conflict and worsen them by irremediably prolonging their effects. The contamination of the environment by toxic products and wastes can become the cause of further insecurity and a new additional source of conflict. 23. Often during armed conflicts, advancing armies cause the flight of civilians who abandon their towns, villages and farms. In its flight the local population may sometimes abandon medicines and pesticides. These products, when they pass their expiry date, become poisons and as they are abandoned, they are not properly stored and can pose a threat. This is especially the case if they are used by returning civilians, thus having potentially adverse effects long after the conflict. 24. Protracted non-international armed conflicts can also lead to a situation in which there is no longer an effective central Government that can administer the legal order and ensure respect for national and international law. The Government, if one still exists, is thus not able to regulate the flow of toxic wastes and products towards its territory. The best documented case is that of Somalia. According to a UNEP study, since the early 1980s and throughout the civil war, large numbers of shipments of illegal nuclear and toxic waste have been dumped along the Somali coastline, including uranium radioactive waste, lead, cadmium, mercury, and industrial, hospital, chemical, leather treatment and other toxic wastes.31 These wastes were in most cases simply dumped on the beach in containers and barrels without regard for the health of the local population. The December 2004 tsunami stirred up much of the waste deposited on Somali beaches and contaminated the surrounding areas. Health problems including acute respiratory infections, dry heavy coughing and mouth bleeding, abdominal haemorrhages and unusual skin chemical reactions, as well as sudden death after inhaling toxic materials were reported.32 Somalia was, according to the same UNEP report, an attractive destination for the dumping of hazardous waste because the country lacked a central Government to safeguard its coastlines and territory. This situation had drawn the attention of the Special Rapporteur in 2005. It is a clear case of violation of human rights, such as the rights to life, to health, to food and to development. It also illustrates dramatically how the armed conflict in the region has facilitated the illicit traffic in and dumping of toxic wastes. 25. In some non-international armed conflicts, controls and limitations on the import and use of toxic and dangerous wastes and products may be overlooked by an armed opposition group controlling part of the national territory. Indeed, armed opposition groups, seeking to finance their operations might be willing to accept the dumping of toxic wastes in exchange for weapons or money to buy weapons. Furthermore, if the region under their control has important mineral resources, they might be willing to authorize the use of toxic and dangerous products in the extraction process, in order to reduce costs and maximize their profits from the exploitation of these resources. 31 UNEP, After the Tsunami: Rapid Environmental Assessment (2006), pp. 133-134. 32 Ibid.