From playground to battleground: children on the frontline in Somalia
This article is from Guardian global development, by Mohamad Shil. Views expressed are the author’s own.
As the rattle of gunfire becomes louder, Mohamed Abdi sits in the corner of a Mogadishu restaurant wondering how much longer he can survive in one of the world’s most dangerous capital cities. “Mogadishu is full of miseries. Sometimes you fall into traps and can be abducted by either government forces or insurgents, to fight for their cause,” says the 15-year-old.
Thousands have been displaced because of fighting between government forces and al-Shabaab, a militant Islamist group linked to al-Qaida. Abdi is fortunate in that he recently found work as a waiter, but not so long ago he was involved in urban warfare.
As Somalia’s civil conflict continues, the use of child soldiers is causing growing concern. In a report last month, Amnesty International detailed cases of children as young as nine being forced into combat. The report - In the line of fire: Somalia’s children under attack – exposes the ongoing conflict’s impact on children, arguing that both Somalia’s transitional federal government and al-Shabaab are guilty of gross human rights violations.
“As a child in Somalia, you risk death all the time,” says Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Africa. “You can be killed, recruited and sent to the frontline, punished by al-Shabaab because you are caught listening to music or wearing the ‘wrong’ clothes, be forced to fend for yourself because you have lost your parents, or even die because you don’t have access to adequate medical care.”
Abdi’s father died two years ago and it has since been a daily struggle for him to support his mother and two brothers, who live in a nearby refugee camp. He rarely leaves his workplace or ventures on to Mogadishu’s streets for fear he might be abducted again. It was shortly after his father died in 2009 that Abdi was taken by al-Shabaab. He was initially accused of spying for the government and driven from Mogadishu to a training centre in Marka, about 60 miles from the capital. After receiving military instruction, he was moved back to Mogadishu.
“Children do tasks such as spying for the insurgents or the government, it depends which side they are working with, and they also assemble explosives. I fought in Industrial Street in Mogadishu. While on the frontline one night, I was on guard at our base in Shirkole. It was dark and two of my colleagues on duty fell asleep, so I managed to escape,” says Abdi.
The teenager, whose family moved to Mogadishu four years ago from the Bay and Bakol regions of south Somalia, now washes plates and earns 60,000 Somali shillings, around $2 per day. He considers himself extremely lucky. Reports from lower Shabelle, Hiram, Middle Shabelle and the lower Jubba regions of Somalia – strongholds of al-Shabaab – indicate that child recruitment drastically increased after insurgents withdrew from the capital this month to allow aid agencies into the city.
Photo credit: Photograph: Feisal Omar/Reuters. Even with their faces covered, the youthful nature of many members of militant Islamist group al-Shabaab is evident.