A Somali mother has appealed for the release of her son being held hostage by militiamen in Libya. It is her second son to fall captive to armed gangs while trying to migrate to Europe.
Saida Yussuf, a mother of five, recently sold her two-room house in Garowe to pay an $8,000 ransom demanded by gangs for the release of her first son. He came home to Garowe.
But several months later, her second son disappeared and ended up in the hands of the same militia group.
“I received a phone call from the kidnappers demanding $10,000 for my second son’s freedom. They threatened to torture him till he died if I didn’t pay the ransom in time,” Saida told Radio Ergo.
Her son is being held by a gang led by a man known to Somalis as ‘Ma-gafe,’ meaning ‘the one who doesn’t miss migrants.’ Ma-gafe has won notoriety in parts of Somalia, particularly in Puntland and Somaliland, because of the high number of migrants from those regions who have been captured by his militia group.
Saida said: “My son called me two days ago. He said he was hungry and thirsty. They don’t give him anything to eat, so I am very worried about his condition…I sold the only house I owned to buy the freedom of his elder brother.
Where can I get this money from? I don’t know what to do. If Ma-gafe hears my plea, please release my son. I can’t get the amount of money you have demanded.”
A relative, Hawa Abdullahi, said the family could not raise the ransom. “Saida is in a critical situation, she simply wants her son to be freed, or her health will deteriorate. Her husband was injured in the civil war and doesn’t have any work. Her family is very poor,” she said.
Another migrant, Hussein Farah Jibril, was rescued from Ma-gafe’s group in 2009 after his parents paid a $10,000 ransom.
Jibril said he was captured with 37 other migrants after being smuggled over the Sudanese border into Libya. “After trekking for eight consecutive days, we reached the Libyan border, but unfortunately we were kidnapped by the gangs and thrown into a Toyota pickup. They took us to a ‘torture camp’ then ordered us to call our parents and loved ones. They demanded $10,000 for the release of each one of us,” Jibril said.
“The gangs were so merciless. The tortured us day and night. If your beloved ones couldn’t pay the demanded ransom, you would die in their camp like a dog,” Jibril said. He felt thankful to be released and vowed not to attempt to leave Somalia illegally again.
