‘It was either killed or be killed’ – ongoing nightmares of an ex-child soldier in Somalia
Shopkeeper Yusuf Ali still battles with memories of his time as a child soldier fighting on the streets of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.
The 34-year-old became embroiled in the Islamist insurgency, which erupted nearly 20 years ago, and while the city’s urban landscape is healing, few resources are devoted to those still suffering with the psychological scars of the conflict.
Warning: This article contains details some readers may find upsetting.
When he was 14 years old, a coalition of Sharia courts seized power in Somalia and provided some sense of stability in a country that had been riven by devastating clan warfare since the regime of President Siad Barre collapsed in 1991.
But the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) marked the first instance of political Islam gaining a foothold in the African continent since al-Qaeda’s 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.
Policymakers in Washington viewed the UIC with hostility, accusing it of having ties to al-Qaeda. Its military youth wing was known as al-Shabab, meaning “The Lads”.
In December 2006, thousands of Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia under the cover of American drones with the aim of toppling the courts just six months after they had taken over.
Ethiopia’s invasion was deeply unpopular in Somalia and was met with fierce opposition as al-Shabab and its allies, including a coalition of splinter groups known as the Muqawama, meaning “Resistance”, clubbed together to fight it.
At the time Ali lived in Huriwaa, an impoverished district in the north of Mogadishu.
Aged one, he had lost his father – killed while taking part in what has been dubbed the “Battle of Mogadishu”, when Somali fighters infamously clashed with US soldiers after the downing of two American Black Hawk helicopters.
It was hard growing up without his dad, but it was the guerrilla warfare that overtook Mogadishu during the Ethiopian invasion that changed him forever.
