First they came for his father, then they told Abdirahman Sharif Mohamed that they were coming for him.In a series of chilling telephone warnings, militants from Somalia’s notorious al-Shabaab movement denounced the father of six as a traitor and ordered him out of Mogadishu.
“They said they would kill me if they found me,” he said. “They told me since I was working for the Government they wanted me dead.”
Hundreds of people are crossing Somalia’s border with Kenya every day as they flee the Islamist militias who have brought a fresh round of terror to an already dysfunctional country,Families who stayed through 18 years of strife have had enough.
Almost 170,000 people have left the capital, Mogadishu, in six weeks of fighting that has raised brutality to new levels — even by Somalia’s standards. Amputations, kidnappings and murder are the tools of war.
Mr Mohamed arrived in Dadaab, northeast Kenya — the world’s largest refugee camp — this week after a fortnight hitching rides and walking to the border. “I was born in Mogadishu and decided to work for the Government,” he said, sitting on a rickety bench outside United Nations huts, where he was waiting to register as a refugee. “It made me proud. It was my duty.”
The digital watch on his wrist was a symbol that he was a man of means. Earning $2 (£1.21) a day meant that he could look after his family and help to rebuild Somalia.
However, after the fifth menacing telephone call from the Islamist militants he decided that it was time to run. His father had been kidnapped and then executed and he feared that he would be next.
There are dozens of similar stories among the families gathered around the simple UN huts where they register for vaccinations, food and shelter. Wives have arrived without their husbands, not knowing if they are alive or dead. Everyone has lost loved ones or watched friends shot dead.
The latest fighting pitches the Islamist al-Shabaab movement against an interim Government which has struggled to assert any authority since being formed in 2004...more..http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6586475.ece
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