Al-Shabaab has been forcefully abducting children from areas it controls in Somalia under the guise of providing shelter and education to homeless and neglected youth, concerned parents and elders told Sabahi.
Coinciding with the start of Ramadan, al-Shabaab announced the opening of al-Amal Centre in Barawe on June 29th.
The objective of the centre is to “rehabilitate” neglected children and provide them with religious education, al-Shabaab’s leader in Lower Shabelle Sheikh Mohamed Abu Abdalla said in an audio message posted on the Radio Al-Furqaan website, a mouthpiece for the group.
“It is a centre to rehabilitate young children who have gone astray or are homeless and who have been neglected by the public,” Abdalla said at the opening ceremony.
In addition to orphans, he said, the centre will welcome other children who require rehabilitation and urged parents of school dropouts and families returning to Somalia from abroad to enroll their children.
“The children brought back to Mogadishu from the West need rehabilitation,” he said. “I urge the diaspora to take advantage [of the centre].”
But rather than taking care of orphaned or disadvantaged youth, the centre is filled with children taken from their homes and schools, said Sultan Ali Hassan Ibrahim, a 60-year-old elder from Barawe who fled to Mogadishu in November 2013 due to concerns over his safety.
“The people [of Barawe] are not free, therefore their children are put in so-called rehabilitation camps without their consent,” he told Sabahi. “They place very young children in camps, especially children between the ages of 12 and 16, whom they believe they can quickly brainwash into believing whatever they please.”
Ibrahim said al-Shabaab has opened similar indoctrination camps in Sablale in Lower Shabelle, and in Buale, the capital of Middle Jubba.
He said six children he is related to were among those abducted by al-Shabaab.
“They do not separate the children. They even take away those who go to school and those who learn in the mosques,” he said. “The children are not allowed visits by their relatives.”
A ploy to replenish al-Shabaab fighters
Despite al-Shabaab’s altruistic claims, the militant group’s intention is to replenish the ranks of fighters it has lost in battle, said Mohamed Yaqub, 38, who fled from Barawe with his wife and children when al-Shabaab captured the area.
“They want to enlist the children and have them fight in the battles,” he said. “Their intention is not to take care of them [as they claim].”
Abukar Sheikh Hassan, a 55-year-old traditional elder who also fled Barawe two years ago and now lives in Mogadishu, told Sabahi that Barawe residents are afraid for the future of their children.
“Al-Shabaab’s intention is not to teach the children the Qur’an and the religion, but it wants the children to blow themselves up,” he told Sabahi.
Hassan expressed concern that the children may return home to kill their families and fellow Barawe residents after being brainwashed with al-Shabaab’s distorted and violent ideology.
“The people who would have taken part in the development of the region by getting a good education and helping the public will become people who go down the wrong path,” he said.
Announcing the opening of al-Amal Centre, al-Shabaab posted pictures of children wearing clean uniforms and holding copies of the Qur’an, claiming that the children’s lives have improved.
But Hassan said that is simply propaganda al-Shabaab is using to lure children and convince parents to come to areas under al-Shabaab control in search of a better life.
Instead, he said, the Somali government should provide services to improve the lives of homeless and orphaned children who have no one to take care of them.
“The government has to fulfil its role and show good governance and take care of children,” he said. “Otherwise al-Shabaab will assume that role and brainwash children.”
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