REPORT ON THE BARIRE ISSUE.

8th September 2017

CONTENTS:

• Overview of the Current Situations in the Region
• Background of BARIRE Village
• The Attacked Farm and the Parts involved
• Local Medias on the BARIRE issue
• Persons being killed and their controversial engagements on the Farm
• The two children being killed in the operation
• The government
• Findings of the Investigations and the decision of the SWS-Human Rights
• Challenges and Recommendations and

Overview of the Current situations in the region

Lower Shebelle is one of the regions neighboring Banadir Region. It is one of the most farm productive regions, and Shebelle River passes and its soil is fertile, as for it is said that, it can be the basket bread for the Somali Country. it has multi ethnic Communities and it used to be one of the most populated region in the country.

Due to having this above descriptions; this region got seriously affected by the Civil war that devastated all the livelihood structures. It is hosting the most serious clan conflicts between two Somali clans called BIIMAAL and HABERGIDIR which made the region to be much infested by AL-SHABAB elements and remain to be one of its stronghold places in Somalia.

The region hosts the most serious violations of human rights in Somalia, as recently happened, AL-SHABAB with under much manipulation of elements with other purposely reasoning burnt nineteen Villages, forcefully evicted seven thousand families and abducted almost one hundred persons mainly elders and Quran School teachers.

Additional remarkable is, when famine or drought comes to Somalia, this region remains the most affected one which is automatically contrary to its nature and resources but people do reasoning differently on that.

Background of BARIRI Village

BARIIRE is a village that locates 20km south of AFGOYE district and its administrational comes under AFGOYE. It is well known with farming and it has irrigational plantations that produce Bananas and other kinds of vegetables and fruits. Its population is estimated around four hundreds of HHs. The residents mainly of this Location are Digil/Begedi/Abajibil. This community is so active in farming and so cool to words what is going in their surroundings.

The attacked Farm and the involved parts

The attacked farm is just 3km east of BARIRI and it was a plantation that used to grow Banana and other cash fruits before 1991 and used to be possessed by an Italian Company.

After the collapse of the regime 1991, the farm got possessed by a man called HUSSEIN TABLIQ who hails from Habergidir clan, Saleban, therefore, the farm remained being benefited by this guy for the last 27 years up to now. When AL-SHABAB rose in south central of Somalia, The possessors of such farms were imposed of special heavy taxes for every year by AL-SHABAB and the income made from such farms were important in their operations. When AL-SHABAB being driven away from the major towns of this region, they started getting established military bases in the big farms which have tall trees whereby they keep hidden for themselves from the US drones and can carry out their operations peacefully. This farm was strategic point for making series of attack to the Main road users which connects SHALANBOD and AFGOYE and to the AMISOM bases in KM-50.

According to some sources say that; this farm was being based by AL-SHABAB whereby they used to organize the attacks to the main bases of AMISOM in KM-50 and also to ambush to ARMISOM passing the main roads and SNA.

According to another sources say that; this farm was based by a Clan militias that hail from Habergidir in order to protect their farms from the BIIMAAL militia attacks but in good collaboration with AL-SHABAB and mixed with elements of AL-SHABAH members.

According to another sources say that; the farm was being based by a group of AL-SHABAB who were responsible for the burning and destroying the nineteen villages that inhabited by BIIMAAL community

Local Media on BARIRE issue.

Somalia has been in chaos for the last two decades and the federal government is weak and there are no institutions that strongly govern the media, and also the communities in Mogadishu are more powerful than the federal government in terms of armies and weapons, so, what the government can do to words enforcing its rules and regulations is very restricted.

Due to these reasons, clan based media have started developing in the country, particular, in Mogadishu whereby every clan started setting up local Radio stations that serves their priority of their clan first than every other thing in the country.

On 25th August 2017, in the morning, the local media started reporting the incident of BARRIRE not knowingly the nature of the incident ,so, the local media was reporting without investigating the incident and they incited the people against the government and while favoring some communities and irritating some other communities, so, most of the local radios don’t perfectly balance their reports and don’t depend on investigative, and this mostly caused by a component of factors, but, the most mentionable are; lack of experience and clan oriented.

Surely, the local media have not done well in BARRIR issues, because of , their reports were not based on facts and were full of bias, thus, a lot of confusions, suspicion and distrust started growing among the communities, particular, the conflicted clans in the region and in the government, because of, some medias were interviewing wrong people and reporting that US-army and the government conducted that operation for supporting one of the parts engaging the conflict in the region and so many unethical practices that can’t be copied here.

Therefore, the conflicts exiting in the lower Shebelle region is much being misreported and also it is done inaccurate accounts by the local media which ignites and fuels the miserable situation already existing in the region.

Through in our recent investigations on the local Medias, the local Medias play big roles in the progressions and developments, and they are very helpful in these war torn societies, but, they are very easy to be used for some personal and specific interests or negative sides, because the government has no powerful institutions that can monitor and protect the media itself.

So that, we urge the Human right organization, international communities and stakeholders to know more about where they depend on getting the information and the

media they depend on reports mostly, because your source of information impacts you and your judgment.

Persons being killed and their controversial engagements on the Farm

There were ten persons killed in an attack that happened in a farm near BARIIRE Village including two children on 25th August 2017 as early as 5:30 am. It was confirmed that the operation conducted by SNA with the help of US-Army in the region.

According to our investigations in the area; these persons were armed with AK47, PKM, Bazookas and a lot of ammunition and also other military equipments were found in the farm and also they were killed while they were fighting.

The killings of these people have created controversy in the government, the communities and the media and also in the Human right organizations, as well as, the international community before the investigations done. As people were equipped with different ideas by the local Medias and these were what the people saying;

“Some people saying that, the killed people were civilian who were farmers, and, another group saying that, they were Habegidir militias who had close collaboration with AL- SHABAB, and, also the third group saying that, they were pure AL-SHABAB members who were conspiring attacks against ARMISOM and SNA in BARRIRE and KM-50.”

According to our investigations, AL-SHABAB attacked bases on ARMISOM and SNA in KM- 50 and MUURI on 24th August 2017 in the evening at 6:30 PM which lasted for 2 hours, so, this group was among the groups that participated that evening attack as people in the area believe that and we also confirmed that from many other reliable sources.

In the region, SNA recently started operations against AL-SHABAB and the SNA of brigade 20th have base in BARIRI that led by a general called SHEEGOW and this sector was part of the BARIRE operation that they knew in the area with AL-SHABAB, and, the General told that, it was a surprise to them when they heard from the local media that saying “Civilians got killed in a farm near to BARRIR”.

This General called SHEEGOW is originated from JARERWEYNE-SHIIDLE Clan in middle Shebelle, the reason why the government brought him in this area is, he is not coming from the sides involving the conflict in the region.

People in BARRIRI believe that the farm was known with AL-SHABAB fighters and also the governor of Lower Shebelle IBRAHIM NAJAH who originates from GARE clan told to SONNA Media that the farm was a well known base of AL-SHABAB.

These are the details of the persons killed in the farm in BARIIRE Location;

No	Name of the person	Clan	Remarks
1	Saney Jama Warsame	Habergidir	Confirmed his tribe
2	Cabdi Fitax yussuf cabdi	?	Unconfirmed
3	Abdikadir Abdullahi Dirshe	Habergidir,	Confirmed his tribe
4	Jaruum Mohamed yussuf	?	Unconfirmed
5	Husien Khamis mocalin	Cormale	Confirmed his tribe
6	Cali Aden Ahmed (cali WAAL)	Habergidir	Confirmed his tribe
7	Issaq Cali Harun	?	Unconfirmed
8	Mohamud talasow Cabdi	?	Unconfirmed
9	Mohamud Mohamed Abdi	?	Unconfirmed
10	Cali abdi Ibrahim	Habergidir	Confirmed his tribe

The two children being killed in the operation

In the BARRIRE Operation, as the Media presents that 2 children were among the people killed in the operation conducted by the SNA and the US-ARMY.

We have met in Mogadishu many different people from different clans claiming that they are the fathers or mothers, uncles or maternal uncle for those children, but unfortunately, we have confirmed as baseless of their claim after conducting close investigations to residents of Villages they told us.

 

The remarkable thing is; it is rest assured that the children seem to be originated from JAREERWEYNE tribe.

We have investigated and contacted the community leaders or Village leaders of the following Villages, in order, to know more about the children and their engagements, but we did not confirm reliable and satisfactory information and we found no clue that we

could link the Children’s family members in these locations;

BARIIRE, OWDHEGLE, KM-50, MUBAARK, JANAALE, UGUNJI, DEK-WARIRI, AFGOOYE, MAREREY and MUSHANE

We have also extended our investigations deeply to cover some other areas that we suspected the children might originate from, but unfortunately, we scored Nil in the investigations also done in the following areas like, QORYOLEY,BUULO- SHEEKH,HADUMAN,FARHANE, GOLWEYN, BUULO-MARER and also in lower juba region, like, JILIB and KAMSUMA.

The genuine reason why it was so confusing us to get the details of these children was; as it is well known that, Al-SHABAB stolen or took away of 1510 children in only 2015 up to early of 2017 in the south-central Somalia, mostly abducted from the QURAN schools, and up to now, nobody knows where those children ended up, for a simple instance, in only May, June and July of 2017, 118 children were taken away by AL-SHABAB from Middle Shebelle and HIRAN regions.

The Government confusions

When the operation being conducted and resulted the death of ten persons, immediately the federal government released ‘statement’ on the BARRIRI attack through the minister of information who is called BADIRAHMAN YARISO( Abgaal Clan), and the message in the statement written was like this;

“10 AL-SHABAB fighters have been killed in a farm near BARRIRI location by SNA with the help of the Federal government alliance, and NO harm to the civilian, adding to that, the attacked farm was well known with AL-SHABAB fighters confirmed by governor of Lower Shebelle, Ibrahim Najah (GARE Clan) ”.

The federal defense Minister called ABDIRASHID (Rahaweyne Clan) gave interview to VOA and BBC media about BARRIRI attack and stated that;

“Those people killed were AL-SHABAB, the farm is known with AL-SHABAB, and there is no way that such people with such heavy weapons could live in AL-SHABAB territory”.

Abdifitah, (Geledi clan), deputy governor at the side of finance of Lower Shebelle region declared in his statement that; “Our SNA with the help of our international partners attacked a farm near barrier and killed 9 members of AL-SHABAB”.

General SHEEGOW, (JAREERWEYNE Clan) commander of the 20th Brigade of SNA said that;

“we killed 9 persons in our conducted operations in a farm near Bariri location”.

CIRFIID, (Habergidir) currently Commander of Somali Defense Army told in his interview to VOA that;” People being killed in the Farm were civilian, they were farmers and they were not armed”.

Cali Nur ( Habergdir), deputy Governor of Lower Shebelle at the side of Security declared that, “people being killed were not AL-SHABAB, they were farmers who were not armed ”.

Immediately the dead bodies were brought to Mogadishu at Madina hospital and exposed to the media in order to pressurize the government to change its decision.

After happening all these contradictions, misinformation, distrust and suspicion in the government officials, the federal president, Farmajo intervened the issue to minimize the growing differences among his government officials and declared that; fact finding mission lead by the Minster of security (called do’ale) has been identified for BARRIRI issue to investigate, and the result will be proclaimed within five days.

After the waiting five days ended, the government did not release the result of the investigation, instead, they faced the issue with Clan based approaches which will please AL-SHABAB Members in the region to remain under Clan protection and to continue their violations going in the lower Shebelle region.

Findings of the Investigations and the decision of the Somali Peace and Human Rights Centre

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL, Please make contact. 

 

According to our deep investigations and its findings, and according to our knowledge in the area, and, according to our experience for the current situations in the region; we have made the following conclusions at our own level as Somali Peace and Human Rights Centre to words BARIRE Issue;

 

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL, Please make contact. 

Challenges.

• The Local Medias, particular, the local radios and the websites which were inciting the Communities through unjustified reports and poor information and as well as conducting interviews with wrong
• The contradictions of the government officials and their clan
• The clan conflicts existing in the
• AL-SHABAB presence in most of the areas in the
• The weakness of the federal government and its clan based approaches for its decision and NOT revealing the result of the investigations
• Existing Powerful clans which are hindrance to the governmental
• Clan protection being given to AL-SHABAB Members.

Recommendations.

We, as SWS-Human Rights Org, call up all Human rights Actors, UNSOM, ARMSOM and other stakeholders to carry out immediate investigations on BARIRE issue and the Current situations going in the region, because of, many violations remained under covered in this region.

• We urge the government to face the BARRIRI issue with governmental decisions, rather than, clan based approaches and local arrangements and to verify the dead bodies brought at the Madina Hospital and release the results of the BARIRE investigation, otherwise, it helps the life cycle of AL-SHABAB to exist in the region and continue committing human right
• We urge the clans not to give clan protections to AL-SHABAB
• We also request the international community and the human right organizations to investigate the Villages being burnt in May 2017 and their

Conclusions

In Lower Shebelle region, Violations of Haman rights have got widely prevailed as we document every day an average of nine cases for either Rape, killing, Robbing or kidnapping from all corners of the region, particular, Qoryoley, Merka, Afgoye ,BARAWE , Walanween and JANALE and it seems that very serious Violations which have different involvements with various reasoning are happening in this region.

AL-SHABAB in this region can’t be defeated or weakened and they will ever continue committing crimes against humanity and also they will keep recruiting children for being their militia, because of, there is good collaboration between SNA and AL-SHABAB, as well as, some of the government officials work with AL-SHABAB in lower profile in this region, therefore, Violations of Human rights in these areas are going to be double in the months coming.

In this region, what deteriorating the situations are; there are no Hospitals and Schools, we document more than five cases of maternity deaths resulted by health complications every day and it is negatively contributing to the situations of the Human rights in the region.

 

Report Compiled by:

Faisal Abdullahi, Director & Human Rights abuse Researcher.

Somali peace And Human Rights Centre.