Somali al-Shabaab rebels linked to al-Qaeda are increasingly threatening civilians to force their children to be “indoctrinated and trained militarily,” Human Rights Watch said in a report on Monday.
The organization said an aggressive campaign to recruit children began in mid-2017, and jihadists have resorted to reprisals against communities that refuse to cooperate.
Hundreds of children fled their homes sometimes on their own to avoid this fate, she said.
“The brutal recruitment campaign of al Shabaab is taking rural children from their families to serve this armed group,” said Leticia Bader, an Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The report revealed that these campaigns take place in three areas under the control of the youth movement in the southern Bay region.
According to the organization, Al Shabaab has opened a series of large Islamic schools “since 2015 in its areas of control attended by children and boys and forcing teachers to teach their curriculum and avoid foreign teachings.”
Youth fighters forced families near the southern Somali town of Baidoa to hand over dozens of their children aged between 9 and 15.
“They said we should support their fighting, they spoke to us in threatening language, and they also said they wanted the keys to the wells,” he told AFP. “We stayed for three days. We said we wanted to consult with our families.”
The tribes have refused to hand over the children, and since then they have been threatening to kill them.
Meanwhile, residents of the Borjaba area reported that al-Shabaab fighters forcibly took 50 boys and girls from two schools to the village of Pulo Fulai, reportedly hosting “a number of religious schools and a major training facility.”
Four villages have also been reported, according to the report in the Bay area, the kidnapping of the youth movement for parents who refused to hand over their children.
While the government has taken some steps to protect schools and children, it must also identify recruitment motives, help displaced children and ensure that “children are not at risk,” the organization said.
Since 2007, al Shabaab has launched attacks to topple successive and internationally backed governments in Mogadishu, often launching attacks against the army, government centers and civilian targets.
Although the movement lost its positions inside the capital in 2011, it still controls large rural areas.