Nearly a year after a suspected US air strike in Somalia’s Jubaland state, a mother in Mogadishu still walks her seven-year-old son to school and back. Metal shrapnel remains lodged near the boy’s hip, and doctors have warned that removing it could leave him paralysed.
Abdiqadir Salah was injured during a November 2025 offensive around Jamaame involving US air strikes and Somali ground forces. His mother, Maryam Haji Abdi Guled, told Al Jazeera she fears another child could push him in play and shift the fragment.
Several survivors interviewed by Al Jazeera say relatives were killed or seriously injured in the operation. They also describe displacement and lost livelihoods.
The US military confirms it carried out strikes in the area on November 14 and 15, 2025. Its Africa Command (AFRICOM) says it reviewed reports that 10 to 12 civilians died and that homes and businesses were destroyed, but found the evidence did not meet its “more likely than not” threshold to link the harm to US strikes.
AFRICOM listed 84 strikes in Somalia through September 2026. The New America Foundation counted 88.
