Thursday, August 04, 2011
The former Al-Shabab foot soldiers assigned to a drab concrete housing block are young -- too young. One is only 9, but they were enforcers of harsh edicts from Islamist militants who are preventing thousands of Somalis from escaping famine zones.
The Associated Press obtained rare access to the former fighters at a government rehabilitation center in Mogadishu, providing a window into the workings of the Al-Qaida-linked group whose presence in much of Somalia is stymieing international efforts to provide emergency aid. Millions risk starvation in Somalia's worst drought in 60 years.
The United Nations on Wednesday declared three new regions of famine zones in Somalia and said the crisis was likely to spread across all of southern Somalia in coming weeks. Getting aid to the country has been difficult because Al-Shabab controls much of the most desperate areas.
The hard-line militant group routinely recruits teenagers or forces them to serve. Last week, three teenage fighters surrendered to the African Union military force during a military offensive.
The most recent arrival at the rehab center, 17-year-old Abshir Mohammed Abdi, said "there was no life, no prospects" inside Al-Shabab, which he belonged to for 1 1/2 years before escaping last week. Abdi is from the country's south -- Kismayo -- where Somalia's famine is hitting hardest.
He said many there are suffering, with Al-Shabab fighters trying to stop the flow of refugees toward food, an exodus that threatens to diminish the population from which Al-Shabab draws conscripts and collects taxes. Al-Shabab has denied a famine is taking place.
Threats to refugees
"Even with women and children suffering from drought, Al-Shabab would stop them, stop them, stop them until they couldn't stop them anymore," Abdi said, suggesting that the flow of famine refugees was too great for the militants to stop.
Somalis who have fled the famine zones and reached Mogadishu said that militants are threatening refugees who leave the south and often are stopping -- and sometimes killing -- the men, leading to a disproportionate number of women and children in camps in the capital.
One of the young former fighters, who spoke through an interpreter while standing under a shade tree at the rehabilitation center, said Al-Shabab also uses threats to keep men within the famine zones. "What they would tell the men is that your women and children would be killed if you leave," said Ali Hassan.
Killers among them
The two dozen young men, mostly teens, said there were killers among them, though no one dared say who. One bearded fighter in his 20s suggested that he had carried out beheadings.
The youngest at the center is Liban Mohammed, a shy boy of 9. Al-Shabab used him as a spy.
Most children recruited or forced to serve by armed groups in Somalia appear to be between 12 and 18, though some are as young as 8, Amnesty International said in a report last month. Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 is a war crime, the group noted.
"This is a never-ending conflict, where children are experiencing unimaginable horrors on a daily basis," Amnesty's Michelle Kagari said. "They risk becoming a lost generation. ... "
The Somali government also stands accused of using child soldiers.
There are more than 160 former Al-Shabab fighters in the government rehabilitation program. Many say they hope to get an education, though some, knowing little but war, profess that they want to join Somalia's military to fight Al-Shabab.
Hassan said Al-Shabab treats their youngest soldiers poorly. "We don't matter. We're taught how to load and unload a gun," he said. Explaining why he left, he added: "I want a future for myself."