CIVIC: Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict

As a Family Slept

One morning in early 2008 Abdi* and his family awoke to their home being bombed in the village of Doobley, Somalia. According to a news article, the bombing was a U.S. air strike meant to target terrorists in the village. Three members of the family were injured in the US air strike. No one from this family was killed but their home was destroyed and all of their cattle were killed. The family has suffered trauma and depression as a result of the air strike and the treatment at the hands of the al-Shabaab militia. According to Mr. Mustafa, the family has trouble sleeping. Some sleep walk, shouting that an imminent strike is aimed at them. There are feelings of fear and being hunted. One of the sons has gone mad after the air strike and has to be restrained by a chain.

Because his house was hit, his neighbors accused him of working beforehand with the US to point out the area for bombing against terrorist targets. His family was “disowned” by the members of the village and he was taken in for interrogation twice by masked men, flogged, and frog-marched in an attempt to make him confess to having a hand in the air strike.

A prominent al-Shabaab militia leader, Sheikh Hassan Turki, threatened and denounced Mr. Abdi’s family in a speech at the local mosque the day after the strike. According to Mr. Abdi, this speech jeopardized the safety of his entire family. The “sheikhs” or men who run the village attempted to gun down his three brothers who had to flee to the Kenyan border for safety. The al-Shabaab militia also had asked for the children of the family to be handed over to them as a way to show the family’s innocence. His family has refused this for fear of the children being used to fight in the militia.

Mr. Abdi fears his children have been burdened not only physically from the bombing, but also psychologically and emotionally. He told us that days after the air strike, he and two other members of his family were being sought by the militants to be killed for allegedly working with the US in directing the air strike on the village. He and the other two family members fled to Kenya and his family remaining in the village was coerced into handing over injured family members to be taken care of by the al-Shabaab militia and the rest of the family members were urged to enlist into the militia as a way to avenge the harm done to them by the US air strike.

The family managed to flee this coercion and have all escaped to a neighboring country, but fear they are still in danger. The family is having a hard time making ends meet for their basic needs.

*Name has been changed to protect the identity of Abdi and his family.

To learn more about the recent conflict in Somalia, visit: Heal the Wounds:  Somalia

To read recent news stories on Somalia, visit: The War Victims Monitor:  Somalia

NOTE: The views shared here are those of the subject and the stories are their own. CIVIC does not endorse any viewpoints expressed in these stories.