Sunday, March 06, 2011
At least 43 Burundian soldiers have been killed in Somalia as reports emerged of a web of deception used by militias to lure Kenyan youth to join their ranks.
Military sources said another 110 soldiers have been wounded since the start of a Somali government-African Union offensive against insurgents on February 23.
“The official toll given so far is totally false,” a military source in Mogadishu who requested anonymity told AFP. “In reality, 43 soldiers of the Burundi contingent ... have been killed, another four are missing and 110 were wounded during the last joint offensive in Mogadishu.”
A senior military officer in the Burundi capital Bujumbura confirmed the toll.
According to witnesses and officials, more than 50 people, most of them combatants, were killed in the offensive and dozens were wounded.
The Somali government and Amisom said they had taken several key positions from the al-Shabaab insurgents in the southwest of the capital, including the former defence ministry and a disused dairy factory.
Burundi sent an extra battalion to Somalia in late November, bringing its contingent to some 3,500 soldiers and the overall Amisom force to more than 8,000. The other 4,500 Amisom soldiers are from Uganda.
Meanwhile, an unknown number of Kenyan youth are being recruited to fight alongside al-Shabaab fighters on the false promises of stable salaries.
Anti-terrorism officials — who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter — have prepared a confidential brief seen by the Sunday Nation that the youth have fallen into the hands of “blood thirsty extremists who have twisted religion to suit their political and monetary ambitions.”
Negative ripple effects
They have warned, in the brief prepared for consumption by top security chiefs and officials, that the negative ripple effects of Somalia’s instability continue to spread across Kenya and singled out the influx of refugees.
The brief was prepared from information gathered by government agencies charged with coordinating the fight against terrorism and securing the border with lawless Somalia.
The revelations came in a week when Kenyan security forces have beefed up security along the Kenya-Somalia border over the threat of fighting in the neighbouring country spilling into Mandera.
The UN says that the fighting has caused displacements in Mandera and Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere has asked Kenyans to be cautious of threats by al-Shabaab to strike crowded places such as malls and public service vehicles.
The security brief has also warned of “more radical indoctrination taking root especially amongst the unemployed youth who have become gullible to mercenaries and are going to Somalia in droves after being promised a monthly income of $300 (Sh24,000).”
According to the anti-terrorism officials, the recruiters have well established machinery from Nairobi and Mombasa all the way to the border towns of Mandera, Kiunga and El Wak. The recruits are then transported to the border towns where they are received by al-Shabaab operatives who assist them to cross the border using unauthorized border points.
Once inside Somalia, the situation changes completely, counter-terrorism detectives found out.
“To their utter dismay, these youths, who are aged between 11 and 25 years, do not get even a coin from the al-Shabaab, and survive on only one meal a day. One such disgruntled youth narrated how he had been paid only $30 (Sh2,400) for a period of one year. As if this is not enough, any person showing signs that he wants to return to Kenya is held and tortured on allegations of being a spy.
“In one sad case, a Kenyan boy was killed in February after indicating that he wanted to come back home,” the brief said.