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	Warring parties in Somalia put children at grave risk - Human Rights Watch

(London) - Somalia’s warring parties have all failed to protect Somali children from the fighting or serving in their forces, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab has increasingly targeted children for recruitment, forced marriage, and rape, and attacked teachers and schools, Human Rights Watch said.

“For children in Somalia, nowhere is safe,” said Zama Coursen-Neff, deputy children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Al-Shabaab rebels have abducted children from their homes and schools to fight, for rape, and for forced marriage.”

The 104-page report,“No Place for Children: Child Recruitment, Forced Marriage, and Attacks on Schools in Somalia,” details unlawful recruitment and other laws-of-war violations against children by all parties to the conflict in Somalia since 2010. The report is based on over 164 interviews with Somali children, including 21 who had escaped from al-Shabaab forces, as well as parents and teachers who had fled to Kenya.

Since Somalia’s conflict intensified in 2010 and 2011, al-Shabaab has increasingly forced children, some as young as 10, to join its dwindling ranks. After several weeks of harsh training, al-Shabaab’s child recruits are then sent to the front lines, where some serve as “cannon fodder” to protect adult fighters, Human Rights Watch found. Others have been coerced into becoming suicide bombers.A 15-year-old boy told Human Rights Watch that in 2010, “Out of all my classmates – about 100 boys – only two of us escaped, the rest were killed. The children were cleaned off. The children all died and the bigger soldiers ran away.”

Al-Shabaab has also abducted girls for domestic and front-line service, as well as to be wives to al-Shabaab fighters. Families who try to prevent their children’s recruitment or abduction by al-Shabaab, or children who attempt to escape, face severe consequences and even death.

The TFG military and militias aligned with it are deploying children in their forces despite commitments from Somali officials since late 2010 to end the recruitment and use of children, Human Rights Watch said. To date, the TFG has failed to hold anyone to account for this abuse. It has also detained children perceived to be supporters of al-Shabaab instead of providing them with rehabilitation and protection in accordance with international standards.

“Al-Shabaab’s horrific abuses do not excuse Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government’s use of children as soldiers,” Coursen-Neff said. “The TFG should live up to its commitments to stop recruiting and using children as soldiers, and punish those who do. Governments backing the TFG should make clear that these abuses won’t be tolerated.”

Al-Shabaab’s violations of the laws of war include attacks on schools, teachers, and students, Human Rights Watch said. The armed grouphas deployed its fighters and heavy weapons in schools, often packed with students, and used children as “human shields.” Terrified students described to Human Rights Watch being locked in schools, awaiting often indiscriminate return artillery fire from TFG and African Union forces.

In schools in areas under their control, al-Shabaab officials have recruited children and teachers and imposed their harsh interpretation of Islam on the school curriculum. Students and teachers told Human Rights Watch that al-Shabaab banned English, science, and other subjects, and even killed teachers who resisted. As a result, many schools have shut down, after teachers fled and many children dropped out. Schools that have remained open provide little or no substantive education.

Human Rights Watch also called on the TFG, its allied militias, and the African Union troops to identify schools in areas of their military operations, including outside of Mogadishu, to minimize the risk to them.

International supporters of the TFG, including the United Nations, European Union, African Union, and the United States, have not paid sufficient attention to human rights violations by the government, including recruitment and use of children as soldiers, Human Rights Watch said.

By the end of August, UNHCR had reached almost 220,000 people with emergency relief and aims to assist an additional 180,000 by the end of this month.

Human Rights Watch urged intergovernmental institutions and governments, including states in the region, to place children’s protection and other human rights concerns high on the agenda when they meet in London to discuss the Somalia crisis on February 23, 2012. They should increase support for human rights monitoring and reporting and use any leverage they have on warring parties to protect children and their secure access to education.

“If world leaders meeting in London want to address Somalia’s future, it’s crucial for them to protect this shattered generation of children from further horror and invest in their education and security,” Coursen-Neff said.

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