Somali residents say airstrikes trap them beside rising Juba River
Local authorities offer help to people who escape, but residents near Jilib say repeated strikes make it hard to leave flood-prone riverbanks.
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Local authorities offer help to people who escape, but residents near Jilib say repeated strikes make it hard to leave flood-prone riverbanks.
Residents of Jilib and nearby villages in Somalia’s Juba valley told the Guardian that repeated airstrikes have killed civilians and made it difficult to move away from the rising Juba River. Jilib resident Cayni Ali said strikes were pinning people beside the river; Asho Omar, from a nearby village, said they had forced people toward its banks. No reliable civilian death toll has been established.
Omar also said the airstrikes made it difficult to move and that many people had been killed. Her account does not establish a death toll.
Jilib sits on a low-lying plain where flooding is a recurring danger. Floods submerged farmland around the city in 2023, when flooding across Somalia displaced more than 1.2 million people. With water already rising, residents’ accounts raise a practical concern: strikes may leave families close to the river with fewer routes to safety.
US records cited in the account acknowledge one strike in Jilib in August and six in September. The US said it conducted 11 strikes from the start of August to the time of the October 26 account. Residents described attacks more frequently, but the accounts do not establish who carried out each strike. Turkey has also used drones against al-Shabaab in Somalia and rarely discloses details of its operations.
US Africa Command, known as Africom, said it does not target civilians, operate to displace them or use weather or flooding as a method of warfare. The US also said it publicizes every strike conducted under its authority in Somalia. A source monitoring the Juba floodplain alleged that the offensive was exploiting flood risk to push people into vulnerable areas; that allegation has not been established.
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Analysis
The danger is not limited to the strikes. Xaawo Nacdoor said al-Shabaab blocked her from leaving Jamame to seek treatment for her baby. She left at night and reached a hospital after walking for three days; her daughter survived. Local authorities offer humanitarian help to people who escape the valley.
Ali Adan Ali, Jubaland’s commissioner for displaced people, said too few boats could leave thousands in al-Shabaab-held territory stranded east of the Juba River, unable to cross to help in Kismayo. As flooding threatens the crossing, access to boats could determine whether families can reach that help.
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