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Right now, Somalia is seized by a drought and famine causing widespread hunger and driving people from their homes.

War is also forcing people out. A decades-old, widespread armed conflict has been placing children in the crossfire of its battles for years.

Amnesty International is raising the alarm about abuses - mostly war crimes - affecting children in Somalia. Children are recruited into armed groups and used as soldiers, denied access to food and medical care, attacked while in school, and killed or injured in numerous attacks in densely populated areas.

"One day I went to school and when I came back for lunch my family was not there and the house was destroyed."
- A 15 year old girl from Mogadishu

Support human rights in Somalia and around the world. Become a member of Amnesty International.

The international community has not investigated war crimes and other grave human right abuses in Somalia, a first step to accountability. Instead, the Somali people are left on their own in a deadly cycle of violence with no justice.

Amnesty's new report, "In the Line of Fire: Somalia's Children Under Attack," tells the story of a 15 year old boy from Mogadishu:

"They took my brother. He was recruited by al-Shabab [an armed Islamist group] when he was eight years old. He was taken while he was playing football. We went to the place where we know that they make them fight and we found his dead body there."

Armed conflict leaves lasting scars, including family separations, trauma from horrific abuses, and lack of education and opportunities for an entire generation - even in areas where it is safe to bring such support, such as refugee camps in countries neighboring Somalia.

As a 19 year old Somali woman put it, "The youth are the people who can build peace in our country. We just need a chance."

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