Somali police intercept network trafficking girls to Al-Shabaab fighters

Seven Somali young girls, aged between 15 to 20, have narrated to a Mogadishu military court their ordeal of being secretly sold off by relatives in Baidoa to be forcefully wedded to Al-Shabaab fighters. This was before the police came to their rescue and arrested three suspected human traffickers.

The seven girls who hail from Bay and Bakool regions in the Southwest State of Somalia were intercepted on September 25 at Mogadishu’s Souk-Ba’ad market, north of the capital city.

They were on board a bus and they were to be whisked away by three human traffickers suspected to be working for Al-Shabaab.

The girls appeared in court on Wednesday for the first hearing.

All Al-Shabaab-related crimes in Somalia are handled by the military court.

“I am from Awdiinle. My mother is a farmer. I was wedded to an Al-Shabaab man called Hassan Siyad Abdirahman whom I had never met. My father is dead. I was forced to marry this man by my uncle. The man sent money and I was put on a bus and came to Mogadishu and was told to go to Souk Ba’ad. I was to be driven to Ceeldheere,” one of the girls, aged 15, told the military court judge, Lt. Col. Hassan Nur Shuute.

The court heard how the girls were lured into marrying Al-Shabaab men by close family members. The judge accepted the prosecution's request to finish investigations before charging the traffickers.

The Somali penal code criminalises labour and sex trafficking. Article 457 criminalised the transferring, disposing, taking possession, or holding of a person and prescribes penalties of three to 12 years imprisonment.

Investigators told The Eastleigh Voice that three men who were arrested while trafficking the girls are in custody. The three — Hassan Mohamed Abdullahi, Mohamed Omar Ahmed and Abdifatah Maalim Yusuf — are suspected to be part of a wider network that secretly ferries girls to be used as sex slaves by Al-Shabaab fighters across Somalia.

According to the 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report in Somalia by the US State Department, Al-Shabaab exploits women and girls in sexual slavery and forced marriages to militants.  The report says that displaced persons, minority populations, people residing in Al-Shabaab territory, and Somali children working in the informal sector remain the most vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labour.

The State Department report highlights the lack of comprehensive statistics by law enforcement agencies on human trafficking.

The Somalia Attorney General's office reported 23 trafficking investigations, compared with 30 investigations in 2021.

Somalia continues to face protracted conflicts, insecurity and ongoing humanitarian crises which impede government and international organisations' efforts in combating human trafficking.