JOWHAR (Halbeeg)- Hundreds of local residents started fleeing from their homes in Middle Shabelle region after Al-Shabab accelerated its child recruitment drive.
Heavily armed Al-Shabab fighters have been engaging in gun battle with the locals in recent weeks after locals turned down the group’s order to recruit their children in Adale District.
Al-Shabaab reportedly ordered elders, parents and other community members in rural areas, to provide hundreds of children for recruitment.
The development sparked off clashes between Al-Shabaab militias and the locals in Gullane and Kadere villages.
A local resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Al-Shabaab had displaced hundreds of locals who refused to surrender their children to fight for the group.
“Many people fled from their homes after Al-Shabaab started the aggressive child recruitment campaign. We call on the government to intervene in the situation,” he said. “Hundreds of parents and children have fled homes to escape forced recruitment.”
The move comes months after a Human Rights Watch report accused the group of targeting children in its listing of members.
“Al-Shabaab’s ruthless recruitment campaign is taking rural children from their parents so they can serve this militant armed group,” Laetitia Bader, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a report released in January.
“To escape that cruel fate, many children have fled school or their homes,” she added.
The report further revealed this is not the first time, over the past decade, Al-Shabab recruited thousands of children who have been indoctrinated and deployed to various battles.
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