On Aug. 3, 2024, al-Shabab suicide bombers and gunmen attacked a busy beachfront in Mogadishu, Somalia. Some 38 people lost their lives while more than 200 people were wounded in the heinous attack. When I saw the news, I couldn’t sleep till dawn. I called friends and family members in Mogadishu to find out if they were safe. The next day I was dazed. I went to the library to work on my thesis as I tried to distract myself. Horrendous memories of my similar experience with al-Shabab engulfed my thoughts. I was scared, angry and obsessed about the ordeal I had lived through.

Escaping assassination

Only eight months earlier, in December 2023, I traveled to Somalia to conduct a one-year-long Ph.D. research fieldwork project on the impact of the violent collapse of the Somali government in 1991 and the subsequent civil war that devastated my country. The day I escaped, the fingers of my left hand trembled as we waited for the motorbike to arrive. I was breathing heavily; my whole body felt cold. This is how I thought the out-of-body experience felt. I took a deep breath and looked at my aunt Haboon (not her real name) with a forced smile. I could see in her eyes she was concerned and scared – for me and herself. We were both silent. I felt the cold wind on my face as I looked at the sunset with indifference and detachment.

The silence was broken by a ringing phone. "Where are you? Where are you?" Haboon almost seemed to scream. A few moments later, a motorbike arrived. "Take him to the border. Don’t stop, please!" Haboon told the young driver with brown glasses. She kissed me as she tried to hold back her tears. We parted ways in silence.

I jumped on the motorbike. All I could hear was the roaring sound of the bike. The glittering sun disappeared as darkness engulfed the land – and my thoughts. The Kenyan border was four hours away. I managed to escape al-Shabab assassination.

Dangerous research

In the late 1980s, Somalia witnessed brutal violence between the military government of Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre and numerous clan-based rebel groups. The military government reacted aggressively to opposition groups, conducting numerous military operations against them, which resulted in widespread brutality and displacement in Somalia. When the military government’s sole ally, the Soviet Union, disintegrated in 1991, the Barre regime collapsed as well, which led to civil war in Somalia. In my dissertation, I argue that the civil war consists of two phases. In the first phase between 1991 and 2006, Somalia witnessed clan warfare amid numerous peace-building conferences. In the second phase, from 2006 to the present, Somalia has been combating al-Shabab alongside ongoing efforts to build a government.

As part of my research fieldwork, I traveled to Mogadishu and other cities in Southern Somalia to conduct interviews with 200 participants, allowing individuals to reflect on their experiences and memories of the civil war. The stories I collected were tragic and traumatic as interviewees opened up about their past and current experiences of violence in the country.

In my hometown of Beled Xaawo, where I conducted focus group interviews with women and the elderly, a local FM station invited me on one of their programs to discuss the conflict in the country. I criticized al-Shabab and made comments about their indiscriminate aggression and repeated targeting of popular gathering spaces such as hotels, restaurants, shopping spaces and tea shops where many innocent Somalians have lost their lives.

Intimidations, threats

In the following days, I began receiving text messages and calls from unknown numbers. Initially, the texts and calls were admonitory, urging me to retract my comments publicly. One text message read: "Brother Abdirashid, I am aware of what you said about our movement. We do not target Somalis; we are fighting for their freedom. I advise you to withdraw your comments." I reported the matter to the Dollow police station and handed over my phone to the security agencies for examination.

My family was alarmed about the whole experience. My aunt Haboon, who hosted me in her home in Dollow, insisted that I should leave Somalia immediately. Al-Shabab had annihilated a clan and killed a community elder in Dollow earlier that month. The elder was abducted from his house in the middle of the night, and his decapitated body was found on the outskirts of the town. "The government rules here during the day, but at night those people rule Dollow," she explained, referring to al-Shabab. As days passed, I received continuous calls and text messages. In one call, the voice on the line urged me to repent, seek forgiveness for maligning al-Shabab and join the militant group’s effort to "liberate Somalia from infidels and their local supporters." One text message read: "You are an intelligent and educated man. Join our brotherhood in liberating Somalia. I know the places you visit. Repent, brother, you have sinned." The threat was clear. I decided to cut short my research fieldwork and leave Somalia for fear of my life. I switched off my phone and never left my room as I planned my departure from the country.

Escaping assassination

One afternoon, Haboon called me, her voice trembling with urgency. In a hurried tone, she told me to slip through the back gate of the compound and wait for her in the neighbor’s house. A shopkeeper, who is also a relative, had seen unfamiliar men scanning and peeking at our compound twice that afternoon. Knowing about the threats I had received, he called Haboon, as my phone was switched off and out of reach. My aunt rushed me through narrow lanes until we reached an open field crisscrossed with footpaths. There, she called a trusted motorbike driver. After a dramatic four-hour drive from Dollow to Beled Xaawo, I crossed the border into Kenya.

That night, Haboon’s house and compound were raided by masked, armed al-Shabab militants. They battered, terrorized and interrogated Haboon and my cousins for an hour, asking about my whereabouts. They ransacked the room where I had stayed and accused my relatives of harboring an infidel spy. Gunfire erupted when security forces arrived, and the al-Shabab assailants escaped into the darkness. Fortunately, no one lost their lives in the attack on my aunt’s house, but everyone was traumatized by the experience. I narrowly escaped assassination.

Al-Shabab abducts, tortures and assassinates individuals who hold views contrary to their worldview and agenda. The terrorist group’s violence has devastated the lives and livelihoods of the Somali people. Only an international military campaign, similar to the one that dislodged Daesh from Syria, can save Somalia from al-Shabab.