FLASHBACK:
"Somalia, allies recruiting refugees to fight Islamists" by Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post | April 18, 2010
DADAAB, Kenya — The US-backed government of Somalia and its Kenyan allies have recruited hundreds of Somali refugees, including children, to fight in a war against al-Shabab, an Islamist militia linked to Al Qaeda, according to former recruits, their relatives, and community leaders.
Oh, NO, NO, NO!!! Only "terrorists" do that!!!
So when you SEE or HEAR about CHILD SOLDIERS just remember it is the SAME SIDE playing BOTH SIDES!!
This is what they call an ATROCITY!
Many of the recruits were taken from the sprawling Dadaab refugee camps in northeastern Kenya, which borders Somalia. Somali government recruiters and Kenyan soldiers came to the camps late last year, promising refugees as much as $600 a month to join a force advertised as supported by the United Nations or the United States, the former recruits and their families said.
And at home?
"The Naval Academy also has been reaching out to students in seventh and eighth grades to emphasize the importance of developing math and science skills to help raise chances of admission."
Yeah, it is ALL WAR ALL the TIME over here!
Have a good life if you can, kids; if our leaders have not robbed you of it already.
“They have stolen my son from me,’’ said Noor Muhamed, 70, a paraplegic refugee whose son, Abdi, was recruited.
Across this region, children and young men are vanishing. All sides in Somalia’s conflict are recruiting refugees to fight in a remote battleground in the global war on terrorism from which they fled, community leaders say.
That is why i can ONLY HOLLER SAD!!!
SO SAD that SOMALI SUFFERING is BUILT on that DAMN LIE!!!
It is unclear whether recruiting by the governments of Kenya and Somalia is ongoing. But their military officers continue to train refugees at a heavily guarded base near the northern Kenyan town of Isiolo as the Somali government prepares for a long-planned offensive against the Shabab.
Oh. So SOMALIA WILL BE in the NEWS SHORTLY, will it not?
Related: FBI Case File: The New Informant
FBI Case File: The Truth About Tariq Mehanna
Update: 2 men face new terrorism charges
Time for some SOMALI FALSE FLAGS to START FLYING in AmeriKa again, MSM?
A second camp is in Manyani, a training station for the Kenya Wildlife Service in southern Kenya, according to former recruits, relatives, community leaders and UN investigators.
“They told us we were going to Somalia soon,’’ said Hassan Farah, 23, who escaped from the Isiolo camp last month.
Farah, who was injured in a 2008 bombing in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, first spent more than two months at Manyani. “I saw 12-year-old children at the camp,’’ said Farah, who has a jagged scar on his left arm. He escaped by bribing a water truck driver to sneak him out.
The Kenyan government has acknowledged that it is helping to train police officers for Somalia’s weak interim government but said that the recruits were flown in from Mogadishu.
I wouldn't want a 12-year-old cop; not with the kids around here. The ones we have are bad enough.
“No one is recruited from the refugee camps,’’ said Alfred Mutua, a Kenyan government spokesman.
Yeah, okay, government.
But (of course) a recent UN report on Somalia confirmed the recruitment of refugees, including underage youths, for military training.
So SOMEONE is a LIAR, huh?
Kenya’s training program, the report said, is a violation of a UN arms embargo, which requires nations to get permission from the UN Security Council before assisting Somalia’s security efforts.
Well, we can just ignore that or veto any resolution like we do for Israel.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN special representative to Somalia, said he has not personally seen evidence to act on. “If this recruiting is happening, we have to condemn it,’’ he said.
“They told me I would become a soldier and fight the Shabab,’’ said Ahmed Barre, a bone-thin 15-year-old whose family fled Somalia’s anarchy in 1991, when the central government collapsed.
He was born in Dadaab’s camps and has never been to Somalia. “I didn’t want to go. But I was jobless. I wanted to help my family.’’
Draft table right over here, 'meriKan kid.
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Yeah, TWO MONTHS later we need a whitewash, 'er, "investigation."
NAIROBI — Somalia’s president has ordered an investigation into reports that the Somali Army is recruiting children in its fight against powerful Islamic insurgents, a decision welcomed by rights groups yesterday.
The recruitment of child fighters in Somalia is on the rise. The country’s continuous violence appears to have increased recruiting efforts of young fighters, minors who can easily be indoctrinated.
We have something we call SCHOOLS over here for that.
Human rights groups and media outlets have been reporting about the existence of child soldiers in Somalia for years.
Yeah, and SOMEHOW NOTHING is EVER DONE!
The Associated Press reported in May that militants are increasing their use of the child soldiers, but that government forces also have minors in their ranks.
Nothing like IGNORING your OWN MSM REPORTING, 'eh?
I guess AP missed the WaPo report a month earlier.
The New York Times reported this week that the Somali government is using child soldiers and noted that the military is funded in part by the United States.
Got a REAL SCOOP there, didn't they?
I didn't know THIRD PLACE was so valuable, NYT!
And how could the Globe miss that story from their parent?
Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed said late Wednesday that he had ordered his army chief to conduct an investigation of the use of child soldiers and report back to him in a month.
And I'm sure we will see another article at that time.
You sensing a PATTERN here, readers?
“The president also instructed the army to demobilize any underage recruits without delay,’’ a government statement said.
A Somali human rights group estimated that thousands of child soldiers are used by both the government and Islamist militias like al-Shabab.
Related: "Al-CIA-Duh" School in Somalia
Both sides are the SAME SIDE, 'eh?
Somalia must be in a strategic location.
Ali Yasin Gedi of Elman Peace and Human Rights Center welcomed the government’s announcement.
“It is a victory for us, human rights groups, that called time and time again to demobilize children,’’ said Gedi. “Our children have borne the burden of the conflict in this country far too long.’’
And what of you, and yours, Americans?
Ahmed, in his announcement, also asked the international community to provide his cash-strapped government with the resources it needs to deal with about 100,000 armed militiamen of all ages in the country.
Ahmed accused al-Shabab militants of “intentionally and many times forcefully’’ enlisting underage children.
Children make up the bulk of Somalia’s estimated 7.5 million residents.
Gedi said al-Shabab’s recruitment of children may partly stem from a lack of willing adults alienated by the group’s extremist views.
Yup, NO ONE LIKES "Al-CIA-Duh!"
But the government is also so desperate for fighters that it has been reluctant to kick out gun-carrying children from its ranks.
“The only chance open for the children in Somalia is to join the army — be they the government’s or its enemies’,’’ Gedi said. “The children get excited whenever recruitment opportunities beckons, because they don’t have any other opportunities.’’
That SOUNDS SO FAMILIAR doesn't it, AmeriKan kids?
The UN believes that children as young as 9 are being targeted and often taken through force or deception.
On Wednesday, the Security Council approved a presidential statement urging the UN’s most powerful body to consider tough measures against countries and insurgent groups that recruit child soldiers and violate international law.
In a recent report, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon accused both Somalia’s government and its enemy, al-Shabab Islamist militants, of trying to maim or kill children by putting them in the line of fire.I'm sorry, was someone saying something?
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Also see: Somalis Smarter Than Your Average AmeriKan
That is not very difficult.
