Sunday April 20, 2025

FILE – Farmers tend crops on a small farm on the outskirts of Baidoa in Somalia’s Bay region. The area has recently seen renewed threats from al-Shabaab militants warning locals to stay away from their fields.

Mogadishu (HOL) — Heavily armed al-Shabaab militants have reappeared in rural areas outside Baidoa in Somalia’s Bay region, warning farmers to stay away from their fields, residents said Saturday.

Local sources reported sightings of fighters in villages including Gasarta, Dambalka, and near Baay-Burjeet. Farmers said the group delivered a clear threat, warning: “inaadan soo booqan karin ama u shaqa tagi karin beerahaaga” — “you cannot visit or go to work on your farm.”

The threats have heightened fears over food access and personal safety in one of Somalia’s most important agricultural zones.

The development comes after Southwest State forces claimed a victory over al-Shabaab in the nearby village of Deeynuunay on Thursday. Authorities said dozens of militants were killed in the fighting, which was followed by celebrations in Baidoa, where the bodies of al-Shabaab fighters were publicly displayed.

Security officials believe the militants’ reappearance in the countryside is intended as retaliation for their losses in Deeynuunay and an attempt to reassert control over rural communities.

According to multiple residents and farmers who spoke with HOL, the group also issued verbal warnings in person. “They told us to avoid certain areas,” said one witness, echoing accounts from others who said armed fighters were “moving in groups around farmland and telling people to leave.”

Al-Shabaab, which has waged an insurgency for more than 15 years, continues to use coercive tactics in rural Somalia to control territory, including blockading farming areas and threatening civilians.

The Somali federal government has not yet released a statement in response to the renewed threats or indicated whether additional security deployments will be made to protect residents.