Saturday June 2, 2018
By Eddie Ssejjoba
The commanders, through interpreters, talk to players of the competing teams and encourage them to love one another and play a friendly game because they are one people.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has started mobilising the youth through soccer as a unifying factor among the warring clans.
The sport is also used to make the youth busy and discourage them
from joining the al Shabaab militants who have continued to recruit
young people to fight against the peace keeping forces.
As a
result, youth now turn up for training sessions at Ceel Jaale in
Shalamboot townships in southern Somalia in anticipation of beating
teams from other clans, not by use of a gun, but through soccer.
Major
Joram Kabegambire says UPDF, working under AMISOM, were spearheading
the programme, aimed at preventing the youth from joining al Shabab
militants and other wrong elements.
The soccer programme is
already underway Ceel Jaale and Shalamboot in the Lower Shebelle region,
but efforts were being made to construct two more soccer fields at
Marka Ayub and Buufow areas.
Teams from the Bimaal and
Habar-Gidir clans have been competing, where community members including
elders, chiefs, women and children are encouraged to turn up in big
numbers to cheer their teams while playing.
“The competitions
are aimed at unifying the youth and supporting the reconciliation
process between the two clans,” says Major Kabegambire.
The teams have been provided with balls, nets and jerseys.
“If you leave them idle, you give a chance to any wrong groups to come and convince them to join their bases” he said.
The commanders, through interpreters, talk to players of the
competing teams and encourage them to love one another and play a
friendly game because they are one people.
“We ask them to shake
hands, avoid injuring each other and continue with the spirit even
after the games, which has strengthened the bond between these clans,”
he says.
As a result, the clans from the two communities have
resumed trading and have allowed vehicles to carry goods from one side
to another, which he said never used to happen.
Hassan Hussein, a
teacher and one of the clan elders says hostilities between the two
clans have ceased after the intervention of AMISOM and they agreed to
live in harmony with each other.
“Nowadays they stopped fighting, it is not like before when we used to kill each other,” he explains.
He
says the youth love soccer and play together and return home without
fighting, which he says is a good sign that there is now peace and good
working relationship.
Al-Shaab, however, have their headquarters
8km from Ceel Jaale town and used to train their militants from near the
AMISOM barracks at Battle Group 22 but with the good working
relationship with the Somali National Army and local militias, the
militants have been kept at bay.
The commander of Battle Group
22, Col. Bamwiseki says that because of the good working relationship
after reconciling the rivaling clans, elders recently detected a group
of al Shabaab militants who had used a shortcut to sneak into the town
and engaged them.
According to Bamwiseki, AMISOM forces were
tipped and joined in pursuit of the attackers and after two hours, some
were killed and others fled.