A new Human Rights Watch Report has revealed that the Al Shabaab are forcing rural communities to hand over their children as young as eight years old for indoctrination and military training. The report indicates that they are coercing the communities with threats and violence in a bid to refurbish the terror group which has suffered a huge blow in the past year.
Human Rights Watch says al-Shabab conscripts the children by subjecting elders and religious school teachers to beatings, abductions and intimidation tactics. The group’s campaign has focused on the Bay region in southwestern Somalia, where communities were already ravaged by droughts and years of conflict.
The al Shabaab have been taking the kids directly from the classrooms and holding them captive until a village or its elders decide to give them a certain number. This practice has caused a great exodus of families seeking to protect their children from the atrocities of being child soldiers.
Al Shabaab has been losing it soldiers through defections to the Somali government and allied forces and as such the leadership has resulted in drastic and inhumane measures for recruitment. The recent airstrikes and ground onslaught on the violent phenomena has rendered them weak. In the past few months, they have suffered major blows as several senior commanders have surrendered making the previously tight-knit and organized group in disarray.
