Al-Shabaab accused of displacing civilians in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Al-Shabaab militants are deliberately displacing civilians in the country, the Somali National Army [SNA] has said, noting that the Al-Qaida group is targeting villages which it is in full control as the military wrestles to liberate them.

According to the military, the strategy is devised in a way that villagers are prevented from collaborating with the government. Also, the militants are now kidnapping relatives of the local militia now helping the government forces to fight the group in different parts of the country.

So far, the military says, over 70 villages have been liberated from the group since the crackdown started in August this year. One of the most dramatic successes took over Adan Yabal town within Middle Shabelle which was considered a stronghold for the militants.

Military officials said some of the residents fled when the fighting got closer, but others were ordered to leave prior to that by al-Shabab.

"They took many families with them because they accused them of letting their sons join the Ma'awisley, and said that their boys had taken up arms against al-Shabab," said Brigadier General Abdullahi Ali Anod, spokesperson for the Somali military. The Ma'awisley are the local forces fighting alongside the Somali government.

According to Anod, the militants are hell-bent to block locals from associating with the government which is mandated to provide basic services to the people of Somalia. "We are fighting over territory and over the people." He said the terror group is exercising a strategy that instructs their local commanders, "If you lose the territory, do not lose the people."

Last week, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud confirmed that the militants displaced many people who were living in Adan Yabal, with the group maintaining that over 10,000 were residents.

The group's shadow governor for the Middle Shabelle region, Yusuf Isse Kabakutukade, denied the group kidnapped the civilians. He said the president's remarks accusing al-Shabab of kidnapping residents of Adan Yabaal were a "lie" and "surprising."

"No one can kidnap 10,000 humans," Kabakutukade told the group's radio station. "Even if 10,000 people were kidnapped and taken by force, I would say where in the Middle Shabelle region do you detain 10,000 people?"

He acknowledged that the residents had left the town but gave different reasons for that. "Some took up their arms, and they are in the forest with the mujahedeen, and some wanted to stay away from his [the president's] fitnah [trouble]," Kabakutukade said.

Al-Shabaab has lost most strongholds to the government troops with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud insisting that the crackdown would continue in the coming months until the militants are completely subdued. The government is also receiving backing from the US Africa Command and African Union Transition Mission in Somalia [ATMIS].

GAROWE ONLINE