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.
This year will likely be the second or third warmest ever on record globally, as an “unprecedented streak” of high temperatures persists, UN scientists have warned.
It comes as climate talks between world leaders get under way in Brazil.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Prince William addressed other nations in the Amazonian city of Belem, including Brazil‘s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and officials from Jamaica, which is still reeling from the devastating Hurricane Melissa.
Global average surface temperatures in January to August 2025 were 1.42C above pre-industrial times, before humans started burning fossil fuels at scale, the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation has said.
The Amazon rainforest around COP30 is threatened by climate change and mining, which also raises cash for the state of Para. Pic: Reuters
The level is closing in on the target set in the landmark Paris Agreement, struck at COP21 in 2015, which aimed to limit global warming to “well below” 2C and ideally 1.5C.
That means just 10 years later, it is already looking “virtually impossible” to stick to the Paris goal without at least temporarily overshooting it, the WMO said.
Under this heat, the UK experienced its hottest summer on record, two million people in Pakistan were evacuated from deadly floods and parts of the Amazon rainforest are so dry that once rare wildfires now spread easily.
Hilde Heine, president of the coral atoll country of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, said the “widespread mortality of coral reefs [is] now seemingly inevitable” and the Amazon is “likely not far behind in suffering a similar fate”.
WMO chief Celeste Saulo stressed it would be “still entirely possible and essential” to bring temperatures down to the 1.5C goal again.
That 1.5C limit is “not just a figure” but a “lifeline for Pacific communities and climate-vulnerable nations” grappling with rising and warming seas, said Shiva Gounden, head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific.
“The legal, moral, and political responsibility for climate action has never been stronger, and the ambition leaders take to Belem will define its success.”
Read more from Sky News:
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A climate change protester. File pic: AP
Who’s staying away?
The leaders are in town over the course of two days, before the COP30 climate summit begins on Monday.
But only about 60 are due to attend, compared with more than double the number in some previous years.
The heads of the world’s three largest drivers of climate change, China, the US and India, are all staying at home.
Although many missing leaders will still send officials to the negotiations, diplomats here in Belem are worried that governments are distracted by cost-of-living woes and boosting defence.
They also fear US President Donald Trump will seek to water down any deals from afar by threatening countries that agree to anything too ambitious.
Leaders ‘denying reality’
Mariana Menezes, a Brazilian mother caught up in the devastating floods in Rio Grande do Sul last year, said: “We see world leaders denying reality and making plans to expand fossil fuels.
“These people, who once enjoyed full lives with unforgettable summers and long walks outdoors in their youth, are condemning future generations to lives of pollution and disasters.”
The WMO’s annual State of the Climate reports found that the past 11 years – from the Paris Agreement year of 2015 to 2025 – have each been in the top 11 warmest on record.
And the past three years have been the three warmest years in the record, stretching back 176 years.
In his speech, Sir Keir admitted that the “consensus is gone” on climate change – that cross-party unity on the science has splintered at home and globally.
He made an economic case for net zero, saying the green transition would create jobs and lower household bills.
But despite attacks on climate policies from the Conservatives and Reform, Britons are still concerned about and believe in climate change, and are still buying in to green technology like electric vehicles and heat pumps, Sky News has found.
US soldiers in Germany may not receive their November pay and have been given food bank advice as a government shutdown entered a record 37th day.
Around 37,000 US soldiers stationed in the country face uncertainty over November salary payments.
The Pentagon has warned US troops may not receive mid-month wages despite last-minute funding for October.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent told CBS News: “I think we’ll be able to pay them beginning in November, but by 15 November our troops and service members who are willing to risk their lives aren’t going to be able to get paid.”
The US army also published guidance on its website directing soldiers in Germany to emergency social benefits, loans, and food sharing organisations including Tafel Deutschland – the umbrella organisation of more than 970 food banks in the country – as well as the app Too Good To Go.
Some of the information was later removed from the web page of the garrison in Bavaria, but some of the listings for services for those affected by the shutdown remained on a separate document.
Read more: What impact is the shutdown having?
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Cuts to flights
The US federal government shutdown became the longest in history on Wednesday – with Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, announcing he was ordering a 10% cut in flights at 40 major US airports from Friday.
Tens of thousands of flights have been delayed because of widespread air traffic control shortages, with the shutdown forcing 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration agents to work without pay.
Airlines have said at least 3.2 million travellers have already been impacted by air traffic control shortages.
Travellers waiting in long airport security lines in Houston on 3 November. Pic: AP
“Our job is to make sure we make the hard decisions to continue to keep the airspace safe,” said Mr Duffy.
“When we see pressures building in these 40 markets, we just can’t ignore it,” said Bryan Bedford, head of the Federal Aviation Administration.
“We can take action today to prevent things from deteriorating so the system is extremely safe today, will be extremely safe tomorrow.”
The government did not name the 40 sites affected, but the cuts are expected to hit the busiest airports, including those serving New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Dallas.
This would reduce as many as 1,800 flights and more than 268,000 airline seats, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Read more from Sky News:
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Shutdown longest in history
The shutdown, which started on 1 October, has been triggered by politicians failing to pass new funding bills as a stand-off between the Democrats and Republicans over healthcare spending continues.
It has now eclipsed the 35-day federal closure in late 2018 and early 2019 during Donald Trump’s first term – disrupting the lives of millions of Americans as all non-essential parts of government are frozen.
Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate. But 60 votes are needed to pass any funding bill.
The Trump administration has sought to ramp up the pressure on Democrats to end the shutdown and has increasingly raised the spectre of dramatic aviation disruptions to force them to vote to reopen the government.
However, Democrats contend Republicans are to blame for refusing to negotiate over key health care subsidies.
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