Somalia Is No Place for Children

Al-Shabaab Rebels Kidnap Children, Forcing Them to Fight
“Out of all my classmates – about 100 boys – only two of us escaped, the rest were killed,” said a 15-year-old boy who, with his classmates, was forced to fight for the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab.
Fighting in Somalia has intensified over the past two years, leaving children vulnerable to terrible abuses, says a new Human Rights Watch report based on more than 160 interviews.
Al-Shabaab has increasingly forced children, some as young as 10, to join its ranks. The group often sends children to the front lines, where some serve as “cannon fodder” to protect adult fighters.
Girls are abducted by al-Shabaab for cooking, cleaning, and supporting front-line fighters. Some are forcibly married to fighters or raped.
Children who try to escape, and families who try to protect their children, may be killed.
Al-Shabaab has attacked schools, abducting children, killing teachers, and firing artillery from schools packed with students, while children and teachers cower in fear, awaiting return fire.
Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government and its allied militias also use child soldiers. When it captures al-Shabaab child soldiers, the government puts them behind bars rather than rehabilitating them or keeping them safe.