33 children were rescued from an Al-Shabaab camp in a security operation on Friday by the Somali National Army (SNA) in Kurtunwarey district in the Lower Shabelle region.
An elite unit of the SNA, known as Danab, killed four senior Al-Shabaab militants and injured several others in the operation aimed at aimed at flushing out the militants and disrupting their plans to terrorize the residents in the region.
According to Somali government media, the children were kidnapped and detained in a camp which was designed to convert them into child soldiers.
The media circulated photos of the troops entering the district and one of a soldier distributing biscuits to the children, the Daily Nation reported.
“When the army took over the town, they went to the camp where the children were staying on the outskirts of the town,” the media said.
The media further stated that the soldiers were combing the district for any ammunition and explosives that might have been left behind, and were in pursuit of the militants who had fled towards Sablale town.
In January 2018, Somali troops rescued 32 children from an Al-Shabaab-run school in the Middle Shabelle region after they had been allegedly taken as recruits.
During that time, Al-Shabaab denied allegations made by Human Rights Watch that it recruited thousands of children for indoctrination and also to become soldiers in its war against the central government.
A spokesman for the militant group told Reuters at that time said that Al-Shabaab did not recruit members below the age of 15 and no one is forced to join.
HRW also accused Al-Shabaab of coercing its religious schools to teach its curriculum.
Al-Shabaab has waged a war against Somalia’s central government for several years in a bid to oust it and establish its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islam’s sharia law.
