Somalia: Violence between political elements & use of child soldiers
This original piece was sent to Channel 16 by a Somali human rights group, contact details were removed for the authors’ safety. Views expressed are the group’s own.
14th October 2011-CS-MOGDISHU-SOMALIA. A remote-controlled landmine planted at the roadside was targeted at a vehicle owned by a Somali parliamentarian member (MP) in the Zone K in Hodan district.
Three persons were injured in the landmine blast, which has taken place in Mogadishu, including the Somali legislator, named Mohamed Ali Omar and known as (ANO_NUG), and two female passers-by. The injured people were taken to hospital where they are being treated.
The parliamentary legislator was injured in the legs, and one of his legs has been amputated, according to our monitors. Those who reached the accident met the eyewitness, who stated the legislator’s leg had been amputated.
After the accident took place, Somali troops of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) immediately came to the spot and undertook a military operation. The TFG troops have seized one person in their operation, who was suspected to [have been] involved in the accident, but nobody can really know the perpetrators, and still no group [has] claimed responsibility for the blast.
In the last days, there were accidental killings in the city as the anti-government element in Somalia have [said] they will take a tactical attack against [the] Somali government and the African Union Peacekeeping troops (AMISOM) in Mogadishu. They recently claimed responsibility [for] the bloody suicide explosion, which happened on 4th October, 2011 which has left over 80 dead and 150 injured. This was targeted at Hargaha and Samaha, where at least 9 Ministries of Somali TFG resided.
Our group strongly opposes the brutal actions targeted on humans by means of killings and total[ly] harmful things. It is very contrary to human rights, its third article saying “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person” and directly condemns [anything that breaks] the declaration of human rights in this cosmos.
Child Soldiers Report
As we know these weeks there [has been] heavy fighting between TFG and Al-Shabab forces, which [has] caused death and injury.
The fighting happened in different places like the Benadir, Gedo and Lower-Juba regions after the TFG, backed by AMISOM and ASWJ, attacked the areas [controlled by] Al-Shabab.
Al-Shabab started to collect children under 20 years old in the Bakol region. More than 200 are the victims of war, hostilities or conflict, family neglect, threats of harm or physical damage.
[In the context of] conflicts in Somalia, children are the firewood of the fighting and are the most affected. [They face] death and injury in all conflict areas in the world, but especially Somalia.
[The use of] child soldiers is growing day by day in army conflicts in Somalia. We can say clearly that the [groups that most use] child soldiering/recruitment in Somalia are the political ones, like the TFG , Ahlu-suna Wal Jame’a and Al-Shabab. However, the participation [of] child[ren] in the army conflicts is [an] alarming trend.
Children living or working on the streets in Somalia are a tragedy that is clearly visible to anyone who visits the country; of course this is also [true] in virtually all of the world’s underdeveloped countries, where children living on the streets face a desperate daily struggle to keep themselves alive.
Al-Shabab started to use these children to the fighting but most of the families are not ready [for] their children [to participate in] the fighting.