US-funded Somali intelligence agency has been using children as spies
Source: Washington Post
US-funded Somali intelligence agency has been using children as spies
May 8 2016 - 2:41PM
Kevin Sieff
Mogadishu: For years they were children at war, boys given rifles and training by al-Qaeda-backed militants and sent to the front lines of this country's bloody conflict. Many had been kidnapped from schools and soccer fields and forced to fight.
The United Nations pleaded for them to be removed from the battlefield. The United States denounced the Islamist militants for using children to plant bombs and carry out assassinations.
But when the boys were finally disarmed - some defecting and others apprehended - what awaited them was yet another dangerous role in the war. This time, the children say, they were forced to work for the Somali government.
The boys were used for years as informants by the country's National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), according to interviews with the children and Somali and UN officials. They were marched through neighbourhoods where al-Shabab insurgents were hiding and told to point out their former comrades.
Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/world/usfunded-somali-intelligence-agency-has-been-using-children-as-spies-20160508-gop6bu.html
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