Since the Somali central military government collapsed in early 1990, a bloody civil war exploded in South and Central regions of Somalia. This civil war caused a rift between the clans of Somalia, people lost trust each other and there were serious cases where some clans were marginalized and targeted by the so called stronger clans; the weaker clans faced property lootings, abductions, molestations and massacre.
Lower Shabelle region is the best and most productive region in Somalia; it has several resources such as, agriculture, livestock, fishery and business. Merka is the capital town of Lower Shabelle region, the region consists of many districts those are all rich in natural resources. Thus, the long term instability of Somalia effected the population of this region more than any one, there were warlords -from other regions of Somalia- who fought on the local people to control and exploit the resources of this region, many faction leaders joined the power house of this region time after time until the Transitional Federal government led by the then president Abdullahi Yusuf did appoint a new governor for the region although the governor and his team could not reach the region due to Alshabab’s strong presence in the region.
Meanwhile since Alshabab were chased away by AMISOM forces in 2012, the population of Lower Shabelle region has faced the worst nightmare. There are gun men -who are in the military Uniform and claim to be part of it- on the road from Merka to Mogadishu, these gunmen are not disciplined as they threat, torture, kill, violate and rob the passengers coming from all lower Shabelle districts to Mogadishu.
The Lower Shabelle people feel they are discriminated from other regions, because all other regions don’t have problems with these gunmen in the military uniform, it is unusual for a female-whether young girl or aged woman- to go through the roads of lower shabelle districts and don’t get raped, it is something that the so called military soldiers are proud of, they compete with the number of public cars they rob, the number of innocent girls they rape and how many men they torture.
Neither the governor of the region nor any other officer raised this issue to the top officials of the government, the road from Merka via Km. 50 to Afgoye is the base of these gunmen and it is where they torture the passengers most, all members in the government, military officers and the regional administration know that these so called military gunmen stay there to abuse and molest the innocent ladies who are travelling and thus, they don’t care.
Furthermore, there are rough roads that Aw-dhegle district residents use when they travel to Afgoye, these roads are also occupied by these gunmen who are moving around the roads and looking for travelling people to rob and molest.
I met a man whose girl nephew was abused and raped on the road while he was with her, the man and the girl live in Afgoye city especially in Eel qode village. This man aged 52 years old narrated to me while he was breaking down tears that he was travelling from Barire village-one of Aw-dhegle villages-to Afgoye with his girl nephew, son and 20 other passengers, it was all a shock when they were stopped by three gun men at the middle of the road 15 kilometers from Afgoye, the gun men took over the driver’s seat and drove the car to the far forest about 8 km from the main road, all the passengers were tortured and threaten to death until they gave away all the properties and materials they had, there were 7 women whose ages ranged from 40-50 with his lady nephew who is aged 18 and single, the robbers were armed with AK 47 and F1 pump, they claimed that they are from other clans in other regions-and they really looked so-, they ordered to women to be ready for molestation in front of other passengers, as the women screamed they picked the young girl and forced her to dress off, but the man-her uncle- reacted with anger and rejection by telling them to take all the money they have but to leave the girl, they refused and started beating the man, when he fell on the ground with too much bloods, they went with the young girl 15 miters from the place and as all passengers were screaming and crying they molested and damaged the body of the young girl unkindly, now the girl is mentally disturbed and her uncle is still entertaining his injuries. I personally requested to meet the victim and got shocked when I saw her just screaming ‘LEAVE ME LEAVE ME, DO YOU WANT TO DO IT AGAIN’?
At the mean time there is no any other region or people suffered from this dilemma, thus; the residents of Lower Shabelle region believe that this is a new era of revitalized empire; there is a danger of sanctioning the movement of people where relatives in different areas can’t visit each other. Therefore, the Lower Shebelle people are urging the president of Somalia, the prime minister, the speaker of the parliament, the UN and Amnesty International to intervene this serious problem, the situation may get worse if these people are kept on discriminated and targeted, they can go on lethal strikes that can result negative impacts.
Written by: Mohamed Arab