From farmers to fighters – how a new Somali militia has risen against al Shabaab
Deep in the Buloburde bush in the Hiiraan region of central Somalia, there’s a ragtag regiment gathering around a missile launcher.
Huddled tightly with their ears pressed against a small black phone, they receive intelligence and feed it back to the troops positioning the launcher.
The Ma’awisley militia is made up of farmers turned fighters and is in the front line of the battle for Somalia’s stability. It is the new weapon of choice in the 16-year effort to eradicate al Shabaab, the terrorist group linked to al Qaeda.
The Ma’awisley fighters
This war is one without a conventional front line. Instead, there are territories around the country where al Shabaab entrench themselves in the community and frequently launch attacks.
Now, these communities are rising up against them.
“We are fighting for the right cause, for the people, for this nation and for the faith until Somalia is peaceful,” says Ma’awisley commander Ali Shiri in Bal’ad – another hotspot just an hour outside the capital Mogadishu.
Primarily, they are protecting their families and farms. The lands they have long harvested are now parched by prolonged drought and stalked by al Shabaab fighters seeking money and food.
“They are bothering the community. We are farmers and they keep coming back to collect taxes from us. That is what made us fight,” says Ali.
The Ma’awisley militia
‘Total war against al Shabaab’ top of the president’s agenda
This new push comes with a new administration, adamant to rid the country of insurgents. In May, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud came into power and weeks later, a 30-hour siege of the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu ended with the killing of 20 people. In response to the massacre, he declared a “total war against al Shabaab”.
President Mohamud has survived two al Shabaab assassination attempts and his nephew was killed by the terror group in 2015. This is his second term as president and the fight against al Shabaab continues to be at the top of his agenda.
Today, some of the fiercest battles are taking place in his home region of Hiraan where his government is steadily recruiting farmers to fight, a task made easier by the harsh climate conditions.
“We are facing the worst drought here in Hiraan. There’s been no rain and now we have an extra issue – war,” says the governor of Hiraan and army veteran Ali Jeyte.
He has been fighting alongside the Ma’awisley for the past four months and says: “We are their leaders and we have told them what’s good for them and they accept it.”
A soldier from the Somali National Army stands watch as missiles are fired on al Shabaab locations
The Ma’awisley are named after the bright wrap-around skirts they wear to work on their farm. Today, these same skirts are wrapped around military fatigues and adorned with rows of new brass bullets supplied by the state. On their backs are rusty weapons bought on the black market.
Fortified by ground support from the Somali National Army and heavy artillery provided by the African Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), they are engaged in an all-out offensive in the battle of Hiraan.
“Around 300 to 400 militia men are surrounding al Shabaab at the moment,” says Abdelsalam Mualim Mohamed, the Ma’awisley militia commander in Bulobarde.
Using their intelligence, ATMIS Djiboutian force commander Colonel Hassan Djama Farah prepares his men to launch the missiles. The first strike hits near the target and they fire another.
When the dust settles, the soldiers pack their guns on to the back of their trucks and the Ma’awisley once again blend into the bushes.
‘Bombs are their weapon of choice’, hitting morale as well as injuring soldiers
The government claims to have killed 200 al Shabaab fighters in the past few days alone and says that many have surrendered.
These numbers are difficult to verify in a war that has been characterised by conflicting information from both sides. The government has recently tightened laws restricting local reporting on the terrorist group and suspended some of their social media accounts. Many Somali journalists complain that that is media censorship.
In this ever-changing climate, al Shabaab is constantly changing its tactics.
“We train on them, they train on us,” says Brigadier General Keith Katunji. He’s the commander of ATMIS Ugandan troops and has been stationed in Somalia on and off since 2010.
Shabelle River, Somalia, which runs through the lower Shabelle region, where commander of ATMIS Ugandan troops is stationed
His sector is Lower Shabelle, home to Mogadishu and where close to half of the country’s population live.
“The improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or bombs are al Shabaab’s weapon of choice. They know we supply our bases by road so they concentrate on putting IEDs on the road and that affects us psychologically,” he says.
It’s the injuries sustained from these bombs that affect his soldiers’ morale, but still they take on the daily task of painstakingly clearing a major road linking Mogadishu to central Somalia, a critical artery supplying the country with food and fuel.
The Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) finds five to six improvised explosive devices on the 150-mile road every day, searching it inch by inch.
Lush farms become drought-ravaged lands as food security destroyed
“The United Nations and the government are trying to supply foodstuff so we have to do this kind of operation. You have to go and pacify the area where food will be dumped and give people hope,” says the brigadier.
Four failed rainy seasons have destroyed food security across the country and forecasts suggest there is unlikely to bring the moisture needed to replenish agricultural land.
Lower Shabelle is technically the most fertile part of Somalia. But from above, formerly lush farms have become drought-ravaged lands. Now littered with planted bombs instead of fields of crops.
Abdelsalam Mualim Mohamed, a Ma’awisley fighter, in the Hiraan region of Somalia
Just under seven million people are at risk of starvation – close to half of the country’s population.
“A hungry man is an angry man,’ adds brigadier Katunji.
This anger is building amongst the Ma’awisley who are not just facing drought.
“When it is harvest time, al Shabaab comes and says we have to pay – these are the challenges we are facing,” says commander Ali Shiri in Bal’ad, a city in Middle Shabelle where another offensive is underway.
Bal’ad is close to al-Shabaab’s former capital Basra and where the terror group would hold Sharia courts to settle issues like land disputes.
For Bal’ad’s mayor Qaasim Furdug this fight is deeply personal. He lost his leg in 2010 in Mogadishu in a battle against al Shabaab and insists the war against them continues.
A fight that rural communities – once terrorised into silence – are now at the forefront.
A convoy of the Uganda People’s Defence Force, part of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia, outside Mogadishu
‘Either farm as a free man or die – we are facing bullets’
“People thought al Shabaab were on the right path but now they have become aware that al Shabaab are the true enemy,” says mayor Furdug.
“So everyone decided to either farm as a free man or die. We are facing bullets. We are facing our enemy.”
The Mayor is greeted by Ma’awisley fighters as he leaves his office. They are taking a break before heading back out to confront al Shabaab.
These battles are breaking out all across the country as the government pushes to reclaim territory – another symptom of Somalia’s increasingly uninhabitable environment.
“We can’t farm and as farmers, we are ready to defend our land and people,” says Ma’awisley fighter Abdi Mahmoud Hussein in Bal’ad town.
At least half of the seven million Somalis affected by the drought are estimated to live in the al Shabaab-controlled territory, a curse many believe goes hand in hand.
“There is a lack of rain and wherever al Shabaab goes, drought follows,” Abdi adds.
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World
Hamas agrees to release all remaining Israeli hostages – but seeks further talks on rest of Trump’s peace deal
Hamas has said it agrees to release Israeli hostages, dead and alive, under Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.
The group also said it wants to engage in negotiations to discuss further details, including handing over “administration of the enclave to a Palestinian body of independent autocrats”.
However, other aspects of the 20-point plan, it said, would require further consultation among Palestinians.
The announcement came just hours after President Trump had set a new deadline of Sunday to respond to his proposals, backed by the Arab nations.
The president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the plan at the White House on Monday.
Israel agreed to the terms, which include an immediate ceasefire; the release of all hostages; Hamas disarming; a guarantee no one will be forced to leave Gaza; and a governing “peace panel” including Sir Tony Blair.
And on Friday night, a statement from Hamas confirmed “its approval to release all prisoners of the occupation – whether alive or the remains of the deceased – according to the exchange framework included in President Trump’s proposal”.
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Trump’s Sunday deadline threat
The group also said it was ready to engage in negotiations through mediators and that it appreciated “Arab, Islamc and international efforts, as well as the efforts of US President Donald Trump”.
But, Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera news the group would not disarm “before the Israeli occupation ends”.
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In a Truth Social post on Friday, Mr Trump said if Hamas did not agree to the peace deal by Sunday evening “all hell” would break out.
Ramping up pressure
He had posted: “An Agreement must be reached with Hamas by Sunday Evening at SIX (6) P.M., Washington, D.C. time. Every Country has signed on! If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas. THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.”
There has been no official response from the US and Israel to the partial acceptance.
Israel has sought to ramp up pressure on Hamas since ending an earlier ceasefire in March.
It sealed the territory off from food, medicine and other goods for two and a half months and has seized, flattened and largely depopulated large areas of the territory.
Experts determined Gaza City had slid into famine shortly before Israel launched a major offensive aimed at occupying it.
An estimated 400,000 people have fled the city in recent weeks, but hundreds of thousands more have stayed behind.
Most of Hamas’ top leaders in Gaza and thousands of its fighters have already been killed, but it still has influence in areas not controlled by the Israeli military and launches sporadic attacks that have killed and wounded Israeli soldiers.
World
Colombia is high on Trump’s troublemaker list – but coca farmers will keep producing to match US demand
“Listen man, we’re a narco state, it’s just how it is, if you want to see drug deals, I’ll show you drug deals – it’s Colombia.”
I’d only asked one of our Colombian producers in passing if it was possible to see drugs being traded on the streets of Medellin. I didn’t realise it was that simple.
Medellin is synonymous with drugs and cartels. The home of perhaps the most famous of all the drug lords, Pablo Escobar, it seems to revel in its notoriety.
There are pictures of Escobar everywhere, on posters, on caps, and on t-shirts. There are even guided tours to his grave, and a museum in his honour.
Stuart Ramsay speaks with a coca farmer, who earn very little from growing the crop
This is where the big business drug cartels were born, invented by Escobar himself, the original Latin American “Godfather”.
In an infamous district in Medellin, we were instantly confronted with the sounds of dealers on the streets shouting out their products for sale as we drove through.
“Cocaine! Pills! Ecstasy! Tusi!” they shouted. All available to a traffic jam of cars waiting to buy.
Motorcycle delivery drivers queued to make the pick-up for their clients waiting in high-end apartments and nightclubs elsewhere in the city, while buyers on foot discreetly scored their drugs, before moving on.
Medellin was the home of Pablo Escobar and drugs are widely traded on its streets
‘Narco’ culture
It was chaotic and noisy, a place where lookouts use whistles to send signals to the dealers.
Two toots mean it’s all clear, a single toot is a warning – it means the police are nearby.
In the middle of this big open-air market for drugs, dimly lit restaurants and cafes served dinner. We passed one café where we saw a family sat at a table outside, celebrating a woman’s 70th birthday.
This neighbourhood runs a 24-hour drug selling market alongside the usual shops and cafes that spill over on to the pavement.
It is not illegal to grow coca, only to use it to produce cocaine
Although Colombia has a long history and fascination with “narco” culture and drug-taking, its immediate problem is that President Donald Trump has launched a war on Latin American drug cartels, manufacturers, and the nations the drugs come from – and through.
Venezuela is at the top of his hit list; he has launched strikes on boats off the Venezuelan coast that he says were carrying drugs. He has boosted American military presence in the Caribbean – sending ships, marines, helicopters, drones and jets into the region.
There is speculation he may be looking for regime change in Venezuela, and that the war on drugs is a front to remove President Nicolas Maduro from power, claiming the Venezuelan government is basically a drug cartel. Something they of course deny.
This coca plantation was hacked into the rainforest on the border of Colombia and Peru
None of this bodes well for Venezuela’s neighbour Colombia, indeed President Trump has made it clear Colombia is high on his list of troublesome nations.
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There are other countries on his list, like Mexico, that he says has demonstrated willingness to clean up their act and take the war to Mexico’s deadly cartels.
Mr Trump’s gripe with Colombia isn’t necessarily that its society has a relaxed attitude to drug use – it is widespread across all classes – no, his problem is that Colombia is one of the biggest producers of cocaine in the world, and it feeds the biggest market, which is the United States of America.
Coca plantations are hidden miles away from other people in the Amazon
Hidden away, miles from people
It seems that the president’s view is that the supplier is the problem, not necessarily the user.
Cocaine is extracted from the coca leaf, which is grown in abundance in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia.
Growing the coca plant in these countries is not illegal, and the leaf itself is often used for other purposes. The plant only becomes illegal when it’s used for cocaine production.
I wanted to meet the farmers who grow coca to find out if they are the masterminds of a multi-billion-pound international drugs business, or just farmers meeting international demand.
My journey began just after dawn in pouring rain on the Amazon River in Colombia.
Perhaps unsurprisingly the plantations are hidden away in remote areas, miles away from people.
Stuart Ramsay in the rainforest
We travelled for hours in the rain, on a small boat with a guide, passing indigenous communities who have nothing to do with the business hiding in their forest.
The river narrowed as we got closer to our destination, and five hours later, after navigating through broken tree trunks and low hanging branches, we arrived at an eight hectare coca plantation hacked into the rainforest bordering Colombia and Peru.
The crop, which is two-and-a-half years old, is hidden by the trees and the river.
They are about to start harvesting it, but it’s incredible just how many leaves they need.
The farmer says that for every 70 grams of cocaine produced, the cartel producers need 30 kilograms of leaves.
Colombia is one of the biggest producers of cocaine
Only way to provide for his family
That’s a lot of picking – and the farmer will earn just $7 for those 30 kilograms of leaves.
The cocaine business might be incredibly lucrative for the cartels that control it, but at the very bottom the farmers hardly get paid a thing.
And though he is worried about getting caught, the farmer I meet sees it as the only way to provide for his family.
“For me it’s very valuable, it’s my sustenance, the way for sustaining life,” he told me.
“We are aware that illegal processing isn’t good for anybody, not exactly, you can’t say I am doing this, and this is good for people, no, this harms the entire community, everyone,” he explained when I asked him if he was at all conflicted about his crop.
“But we all make sacrifices, and we struggle to make our way in life.”
It’s hard to believe that the global business of manufacturing and shipping cocaine around the world all starts with these fairly innocuous looking coca leaves.
And whatever Donald Trump says, they will keep producing as long as users in America, Europe, and indeed the world, demand it.
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