PM forms inquiry committee over claims Somali security agencies use children as spies

Prime Minister Abdirashid Sharmarke has formed a fact finding committee to investigate allegations that Somali security agencies were using children as a spies following a report published by the American newspaper, The Washington Post.

The committee which comprises three minister and head of custodial corps ‘will look into and investigate allegations against the Security Agencies using children who defected from Al Shabab as spies as alleged in some news portals’.

In the story, the Post says the National Intelligence Agency, NISA has been using child informants who were once under Al-Shabaab control but had been disarmed and released.

“The child informants were used to collect intelligence or identify suspects in some of the world’s most dangerous neighbourhoods, according to their accounts,” The Post said.

The teenagers, The Post says were marched through neighbourhoods where al-Shabab insurgents were hiding and told to point out their former comrades. It notes some of the boys, young as 10 were rarely concealed and several of them were killed. One tried to hang himself while in custody according to the report.

But the Prime Minister said the government has offered pardon to any defectors from Al-Shabaab and that those who accepted were granted protection and rehabilitation.

“The Federal Government would like to affirm that it has in the past and now extended pardon to any person who defects from the terrorist group Al Shabab. And in particular the brainwashed children who defect are granted protection and rehabilitation program back into the society,” read the statement from the PM.

The committee, whose timeline of operation the PM did not indicate will be composed of the Ministers of Justice, Interior and Federalism, Security and commander of the Custodial Corps.