From Books to Barracks in Somalia

From Books to Barracks

School is meant to be a safe place. It is meant to be a place of learning, opportunity, and discovery of passions. In Somalia, however, terrorism has been on the rise, and the main targets are schools and the children inside them.

Since 2006, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated group Al-Shabaab has been terrorizing Somali citizens. Al-Shabaab, which means “The Youth”, has the goal of spreading Islam and a strict Sharia Law throughout the country. In recent years, it has built up its army to roughly 7,000-9,000 fighters (“Who are Somalia’s”). Many of these “recruits” are children, some no more than eight years old. In 2017 alone, Al-Shabaab abducted thousands of kids aged eight to fifteen from schools throughout Somalia, leaving parents heartbroken and teachers afraid to come to work (“Somalia: Al-Shabab Demanding”). Al-Shabaab has violated the rights of these children by stealing their free will and destroying their scholastic process.
Al-Shabaab has not only abducted children from their daily lives and families; it has also violated the youths’ freedoms of thought through indoctrination. Using a form of strengthened brain-washing, Al-Shabaab convinces the children that Sharia Law and the Muslim faith are the best ideas to follow, and that it is an honorable act to fight for Al-Shabaab or be a suicide bomber. They have even forced teachers to teach only Al-Shabaab’s doctrine (Wasike). Hussein Farah, a writer for a media site that advocates for peace and development in Somalia, states, “Commanders like children because it is easier to manipulate their psychological capacity to participate in mass atrocities” (Farah). This corruption of each child’s mind is only part of the hell they must endure in the army, but it’s possibly the most unforgivable because the youth didn’t choose to fight; the choice was made for them.

A number of Somali children have managed to escape Al-Shabaab’s indoctrination and have taken refuge in other parts of the country, but Al-Shabaab still manages to make them suffer by taking away their right to education. For example, in a Kenyan city just outside of Somalia, 10-year-old Said Sefu’s school was changed into a military base because of Al-Shabaab attacks, and as of February, he hadn’t been to school in three years. Sefu admitted, “I wanted to become a teacher when I grow up. But we are not going to school like other children. I don't think I will achieve my dream"(Onyulo). What’s more, many Somali kids who escape Al-Shabaab by fleeing their towns wind up in poverty without their families with no education, and must work to survive (Wasike). Even though they did not directly take these kids, Al-Shabaab is ruining their lives anyway, and the opportunities that come with education are lost for the current young generation in Somalia.

Many attempts have been made to stop the growing terrorist group’s progress. The US has over 500 troops in Somalia and conducted 30 airstrikes in 2017 (“Who are Somalia's”). The Somalian government has signed protocols to prevent the abduction and drafting of children under 18, and Human Rights Watch is working to identify Al-Shabaab’s recruitment camps and shut them down. (“Somalia: Al-Shabab Demanding”). Furthermore, Laetitia Bader, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, has said, “The government and international actors need to make sure that the children that have been displaced are receiving protection and access to education” (Wasike). There has been progress, but Al-Shabaab is still fighting, and an increasing amount of the fighters are kids. The children of Somalia haven’t felt safe for a long time, and unless Al-Shabaab is discontinued, they likely never will again.

 

Works Cited

Burke, Jason. “Al-Shabaab Plundering Starving Somali Villages of Cash and Children.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 21 Feb. 2018, www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/21/al-shabaab-extortion-indoctrination-somalia.

Farah, Hussein. “Somalia's Al-Shabaab Child Soldiers Speak Out.” Horseed Media,  21 Mar. 2016,  https://horseedmedia.net/2016/03/22/somalias-al-shabaab-child-soldiers-speak-out/.

Onyulo, Tonny. "Kenya terrorism crushes kids' dreams of school." USA Today, 6 Feb 2018, p.04A. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,                                                               http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A526634506/OVIC?u=los42754&xid=373739e1.

“Somalia: Al-Shabab Demanding Children.” Human Rights Watch, 15 Jan. 2018,      Global Issues in Context,                                                                                                 http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A523193185/GICu=los42754&xid=a05    0e299.

Wasike, Andrew. "Rights Group - Al Shabab Forcibly Recruits Children." Africa News Service, 16 Jan. 2018. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A523184437/OVICu=los42754&xid=2 27454c4.

“Who Are Somalia's Al-Shabab?” BBC News, BBC, 22 Dec.                                           2017,  www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-15336689.