A former child soldier has broken his silence, detailing the horror of being forced into Somalia’s endless civil war. The man, now 32, was abducted at age 9 by Al-Shabaab militants. He was given a Kalashnikov and told to kill or be killed. For three years, he fought in a conflict that has claimed over 500,000 lives since 1991.
His testimony comes as the UN warns of a new recruitment surge. Over 1,200 children were recruited last year alone. The figure is likely higher. Many are not counted.
‘They gave me a gun and told me to shoot. If I refused, they would shoot me,’ the man told our reporter. He spoke on condition of anonymity. He fears reprisals from the group that still holds sway over large swathes of the country.
Somalia’s federal government has struggled to contain the insurgency. A recent offensive backed by African Union troops has made gains. But it has not broken Al-Shabaab’s grip. The group controls vast rural areas. It collects taxes. It runs courts. It is a state within a failed state.
‘The international community is not paying attention,’ said a senior Western diplomat, speaking off the record. ‘Somalia is falling off the agenda. That is a mistake. This war is not over. It is mutating.’
The ex-child soldier now lives in Mogadishu. He runs a small shop. He has nightmares. He does not know what happened to his family. Most are dead, he assumes. He is one of the lucky ones. He escaped. But he carries the scars.
‘I killed people. I do not know how many. I was a child. I did what I was told. That is the only way to survive.’
His story is a reminder of a dirty war that has no end in sight. The political class in Mogadishu is fractured. The government survives on foreign aid. Corruption is rife. Al-Shabaab is resilient. The cycle continues.
For this man, there is no justice. Only survival. And the hope that his children will never know the same nightmare.
