Reported by The Guardian
Exclusive: Coordinated airstrikes on territory held by al-Shabaab are driving the civilian population to find refuge alongside a river where rising water levels are a threat to safety. Is it a deliberate military strategy?
T he water was rising rapidly. It had already reached Cayni Ali’s waist. Her home, five metres from the flooded River Juba in southern Somalia , never stood a chance. There was nowhere to go. Ali’s city of Jilib was under attack. Repeated airstrikes, said the mother of six, were pinning its population beside the rising river.
“The drones come all the time,” said the 27-year-old. “We hear them constantly. They kill animals, civilians. The town is big but destruction is everywhere.”
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Asho Omar from Malenda, a village near Jilib, described “constant” airstrikes that had forced people towards the banks of the Juba.
“The airstrikes are everywhere; it is difficult to move. So many people have been killed.”
Their testimony offers a rare glimpse of life inside the stronghold of al-Shabaab , the Islamist militants who control 30% of Somalia. Closed off from the outside world, residents describe a city dealing with significant civilian casualties. Bodies, some said, lay in the streets.
The ongoing conflict is a legally ambiguous, shadowy war coordinated by the United States in east Africa , in which there is little accountability for harm to Somali civilians.
The United States Africa Command (Africom) would not share “operational security” details of a seemingly accelerating campaign that has also raised questions over potential covert US strikes. But there is, perhaps, an even darker dimension to the offensive on al-Shabaab’s de facto capital .
Sources say the military strategy appears to be seeking to drown those living in al-Shabaab territory by “weaponising” a rapidly strengthening El Niño , forecast to intensify Somalia’s rainy season from this month.
“The airstrikes are forcing people to go close to the river. It’s an extremely aggressive offensive, exploiting El Niño as a weapon of war to push the population into flood-prone areas,” said a source monitoring the Juba floodplain in southern Somalia.
Pinning the population – which includes large…