NAIROBI, Kenya — Suleqha Mahat, a Somali woman from the town of Adanyabal, is still worried and traumatized despite Somali military forces liberating the town from the al-Shabaab terror group linked to al-Qaida.

“The town is free, but my mind is not free, and I am still traumatized and remember the pain and punishment meted on women by al-Shabaab Shariah police,” Mahat said. Her story is an example of the kind of displacement and migration experienced by many Somalians forced to leave their home country by radical Islamists.

In 2015, Mahat’s family migrated from Runigrod to Adanyabal in Somalia with the intention of starting a business venture and tapping into the strategic location of the town, which receives traffic from Mogadishu and other major regions of middle and lower Shabelle, an administrative region in southern Somalia.

“My family was operating a small eatery business and vehicle repair shop in Runigrod town,” Mahat said. “The business return was not good, and we decided as family to move to the strategic town of Adanyabal, where we established our businesses.”

According to Mahat, the strategic Adanyabal town offered her family many opportunities and the people were kind, open, social and they organized many cultural events which brings people together. The cultural festivals and events came with songs, feasting and competitions which bring all the villagers together.

The al-Shabaab arrives

“Adanyabal communities lost all their freedom and cultural events when al-Shabaab militants invaded the town and established their terror command and deployed Shariah police,” Mahat said, recalling the invasion in mid-2016.

The terror group unleashed a broadcasting team with loudspeakers and ordered people to stay in their homes while other militants moved from one home to another, registering people.

“They conducted thorough vetting and profiled all families in Adanyabal,” Mahat said. “Through profiling they could know each family had how many members and what they do. It was easy for them to undertake surveillance and detect any outsider who would enter the town.”

The profiling campaign also listed all women and girls separately and al-Shabaab’s female Shariah police arrived to conduct orientation for Adanyabal women.

“They came to the town with their al-Shabaab women Shariah police team, and they started strict enforcement targeting women and girls,” Mahat said. “We were ordered to cover our bodies, hide our face and eyes and also ensure we don’t talk to the opposite sex or mix with them in any venues or settings.”

A mother watches her daughter’s beating

According to a businesswoman, Warda Sheikh, the al-Shabaab women Shariah police were fierce women who subscribe to the terror group’s theories and teachings. 

“The women Shariah police were merciless, hawkish, strict and had an eye of undertaking surveillance on village women,” Sheikh said. “They storm homesteads, frog march women or girls and administer punishment.”

Sheikh, a mother of two, witnessed the caning of her daughter by the al-Shabaab women Shariah police due to claims that she had inappropriate contact with a male villager. She was given 10 lashes and ordered to attend regular debriefing conducted by the Shariah police.

“It was early morning and the women Shariah police invaded our home and took away my daughter,” Sheikh said. “After an hour I was ordered to attend a court session where my daughter case was conducted. She was accused of inappropriate conduct with a male villager. Judgement was made and she was given 10 lashes. She was immediately taken an open field where a strong al-Shabaab women Shariah police member administered the lashes.”

Sheikh could not hide her emotion during the lashing session as her daughter wailed, cried and lost consciousness as punishment was meted on her.

“As a mother I could not bear or listen to the cries and wailing from my daughter in hand of brutal women Shariah police,” she said. “My daughter lost consciousness after six lashes were administered on her, and she was silent and unconscious when receiving the remaining four lashes. It was painful, and the women Shariah police threatened me with punishment if I didn’t monitor and force my daughters to respect the Shariah law.”

The accused male counterpart managed to flee the al-Shabaab controlled Adanyabal after getting a tip off that his family’s home would be invaded in the early hours of the morning before he would be frog-marched to al-Shabaab Shariah court.

When the Shariah law was read to them by the al-Shabaab Shariah police team, Adanyabal women realized their freedom of association, gathering, attending cultural events and even doing business with male counterparts were all gone and they would be forced lead a strict lifestyle.

“The al-Shabaab women Shariah police ordered me to close my khat-selling business on the grounds that the leafy stimulants encourage fornication (and) adultery and promote close contacts between men and women,” said Sheikh. “I lost my business, my customers and livelihood.”

Khat is a leafy stimulant that is grown in central Kenya and highly demanded and used by communities living in Somalia and the northern part of Kenya, which is inhabited by Somali communities. During the al-Shabaab reign in Adanyabal, located in middle Shabele, strict enforcement of Shariah was enforced by the morality police.

A state of surveillance

“We were under siege for six years, and the al-Shabaab enforced strict dress code, stoning adulterers, caning fornicators and ensuring no close contact between women and men in public places like markets, roads and villages,” Mahat said.

The terror group operated a strong surveillance network, and a team was tasked with auditing all business enterprises, like Mahat’s family businesses.

“Al-Shabaab teams visited all businesses in Adanyabal, and they imposed levies and taxes, and more so, they ordered all business premises to pay zakat (an Islamic alm) contributions,” Mahat said. “The team calculated the zakat each business enterprises is supposed to pay.”  

A liberation

Adanyabal in Somalia was liberated by Somali military forces on Dec. 3, 2022, with assistance from international communities, and the majority of the people feel free and have resorted to their former lifestyle, where they exercise freedom in all their undertakings and interactions.

“Finally, the town is free, freedom is back and the Shariah courts and al-Shabaab are out, but many people in Adanyabal are still shocked (and) traumatized, and others have lost their relatives or family members to al-Shabaab firing squads,” Sheikh said. “It will take time for the community in Adanyabal to heal, and even others think al-Shabaab might recapture the town again. Its fear, a cloud of suspicion and pain.”

As Somali military forces have taken control and established a governance system that borrows a lot from clan systems and Somali penal code, the former al-Shabaab open fields, which acted as canning, stoning and firing squad centers, were all closed.

“The Somali government has closed the al-Shabaab open fields and their Shariah courts, but many people still get more traumatized each Friday since the town was liberated,” Sheikh said. “Al-Shabaab used to conduct major punishments on Friday, and they summoned all Adanyabal town residents to see how brutal punishments meted were. So, each Friday, despite the liberation, trauma and pain fills the air.

The liberation of Adanyabal has not brought total peace to the distraught and traumatized families and communities. Some of them decided to leave the town until the al-Shabaab terror group is removed from other neighboring Somali regions.

A migration to Kenya

“As a family we decided to close our businesses and move out of the liberated Adanyabal town,” Mahat said. “I decided to move to Nairobi, Kenya, where some of my relatives live as urban refugees, while my other family members left for Mogadishu, Somalia, where they plan to start an eatery business. As a family we can only return to Adanyabal after total liberation is complete in the neighboring regions in Shabele.”  

Mahat paid human traffickers to take her through various towns in middle and lower Shabelle, and later she reached the Jubaland region, where she was taken to the Kenya-Somalia town of Belet-Hawa, where she crossed into Kenya in December 2022. She later paid other traffickers, who smuggled her to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, where she has lived as an urban refugee since Jan. 2.

She is living in Nairobi with family members who are also registered as urban refugees. She has started a small-scale business venture, selling tea, bottled water and snacks to some khat-consuming customers in Nairobi, Kenya. She normally registers a booming business from afternoon to midnight, when the khat-consuming customers are active and chewing the leafy stimulant.

Her business venture is unique as it’s frequented by Somalis refugees who have fled al-Shabaab controlled areas and are currently living safely in Nairobi. So, it’s a safe space for them. They chew khat, unwind and discuss the challenges they faced under al-Shabaab and also share daily updates from Somalia and areas they hail from in Somalia.

Mahat was given a soft loan of about $700 by other urban refugees to start the business. She paid $400 to rent a kiosk for two months.

Refuge for Sheikh

Sheikh and her two daughters decided to flee the liberated town and reached the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, where they registered as refugees, and hope to emigrate to a safe country through a resettlement program.

“We are now safe in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, but as a family we fear some al-Shabaab members who were defeated and chased from the liberated towns in middle Shabelle might also land and seek refuge in Dadaab refugee camp,” Sheikh said. “So, we are careful as a family, and we will get real freedom when we emigrate to a safe third country. We have just lodged our resettlement application, and it will take time.”  

According to an international award-winning womens’ rights activist, Amran Abdundi, Kenyan authorities need to set up a debriefing center along the vast and unmanned Kenya-Somalia border and offer support to women fleeing al-Shabaab territory and those who have escaped the liberated regions.

“Women suffered a lot under Al-Shabaab terror authorities, and those who have escaped to Kenya need to be given trauma and healing support and given an environment where they will narrate their ordeals, and information given during such debriefing sessions might assist Kenyan authorities to profile al-Shabaab actors, tormentors, Shariah women police officers, general morality police and their senior figures and apprehend them if they cross into Kenya,” said Abdundi. “Most of Al-Shabaab fighters, senior figures and enforcers are on the run after they lost territories to Somalia forces, and they might end up in the Dadaab refugee camp.”

Abjata Khalif is an award-winning journalist based in the northern part of Kenya. He has extensive media experience covering health, environment, science, climate change and development issues. He’s on twitter @abjata.