Gunmen from the Islamist al-Shabaab militia have routinely abducted teenage girls to work as servants on the frontline and forced them to marry fighters, according to a new report documenting the abuse of children in Somalia's civil war.
A member of Al-Shabaab during a public demonstration to announce their integration with al-Qaeda in Elasha earlier this month Photo: AFP/GETTY
5:36PM GMT 21 Feb 2012
The report by Human Rights Watch also found that as fighting has intensified over the past two years, al-Shabaab has increasingly targeted boys as young as 10 for action on the frontline to join its dwindling ranks. Whole classrooms have been forced at gunpoint to leave school and fight.
Researchers found that after several weeks of harsh training child recruits are sent for action where they often serve as "cannon fodder" to protect adult fighters.
"It is a new, disturbing pattern using children as human shields," said Laetitia Bader, one of the principal authors and researchers of the report.
Boys who escaped camps were either mown down or faced long and terrifying journeys to sanctuary elsewhere in Somalia or across the border in Kenya.
Girls who resisted capture can face the most appalling consequences, Human Rights Watch found. A 16-year-old girl who refused to marry an al-Shabaab commander who was three times her age was killed by his men and beheaded. Her head was brought back to the school as a warning to others.Read the rest on the: Telegraph
