For the thousands of people fleeing famine to squat here in rag-and-stick shelters pitched on a sloping plain bleached of colour, this village is known as Beladul Amiin, or "the safe place".
To an outsider, it appears far from that. Gunmen - in uniform and not - saunter past skinny cows lying listlessly under a dull sky.
[. . .]
The villages these people left behind are now deserted, emptied as al-Shabaab, Somalia's Islamist insurgents, stole food and livestock, executed dissenters and forcibly abducted young men to fight.
"They are killing and raping people there, whole villages are being burnt, all of the animals have been taken," said Hawa Hassan, a middle-aged mother who walked for 10 days to reach Tullo Amiin. "My brother was shot and killed in his home. It is the same for everyone. There is no peace there. They are forcing people into recruitment to fight. We had to run to save our lives."
[. . .]
[Al-Shabaab] is still managing to lure fresh fighters into its ranks, many of them from over the border in Kenya, clan elders and government officials warned. Again, it is drought and a lack of income and opportunity that is pushing Kenya's young sons and brothers into the arms of Islamist fundamentalists.
 |
| Photo: Stuart Price (UN/UPI); Women rush to a feeding centre after the soldiers of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) cannot contain the crowd in Badbado, a camp for Internally Displaced Persons in Mogadishu, Somaila on July 20, 2011 |
No comments:
Post a Comment