A seven-year-old boy who was riddled with shrapnel during a deadly US airstrike in Somalia faces losing his ability to walk unless he has a £750 emergency operation.
Abdiqadir Salah's family cannot afford the surgery, and the US refuses to admit that any civilians were killed or injured during its attack six months ago. The US appears unwilling to pay compensation to those affected by airstrikes in Somalia.
Shrapnel Lodged in Back and Thigh
Shards of shrapnel are lodged in two places in Abdiqadir's back and in his upper thigh after US airstrikes that killed at least 12 civilians, including eight children. It is the deadliest attack on civilians in Somalia during either Trump administration and one of the worst since the botched 1993 US military operation in Mogadishu known as Black Hawk Down.
A Guardian investigation into the strikes in the town of Jamaame raises questions over US intelligence, how targets were selected, and why children were hit while they were in the open and likely clearly identifiable to the drone's strike team.
Mother's Account of the Attack
His mother, Marian Haji Abdi Guled, said Abdiqadir was in the street outside their home in Jamaame on 15 November 2025 when he was struck by a missile. 'That's where three of my children got wounded. All three of them were laying on the ground covered in blood,' she said.
'When I tried to tend to them, shells began falling everywhere. Every step you took, or direction you turned, there were shells and missiles raining everywhere. There was no warning before the strikes but we could hear drones hovering above town before the strikes. It was very loud.'
After the attack, Guled took her three injured children into the surrounding countryside to flee the drones. Her eldest, Mohamed, 16, had shrapnel lodged in his fingers, while her daughter Sumaya, 14, had three metal fragments lodged in her head, which have since been removed. Abdiqadir's X-rays show shrapnel still lodged near his hip socket.
Desperate Journey for Treatment
'They bled throughout the night,' Guled said. 'We couldn't leave the countryside because we feared the drones hovering above would bomb us again.' The next day, she traveled 40 miles to Jilib, the de facto capital of territory held by al-Shabaab, the stated target of the US airstrikes. The hospital there could not help.
After borrowing money for the two-day journey, Guled traveled with Abdiqadir and his sister to Mogadishu. 'My oldest still has shrapnel lodged in his body but I left him back in Jamaame because I couldn't afford to take him to Mogadishu and took the younger ones. During the two nights and two days to reach Mogadishu, we couldn't even eat anything. All I thought about was saving my children.'
Urgent Surgery Needed
Doctors at Kaafi hospital in central Mogadishu told his mother that the shrapnel inside the child needed to be urgently removed to avoid life-changing consequences. 'They told me if the shrapnel isn't removed from his body, it could affect his ability to continue walking,' Guled said. 'But I don't have $1,000 needed for the operation. What's worse than being a mother who can't do anything for her wounded children?'
Despite being unable to afford the surgery, Guled has stayed in Mogadishu because it is the only place her child can get treatment. However, the cost of renting accommodation in the capital – nearly £190 a month – makes it impossible for the family to save enough for the surgery.
No Compensation from US
The US has not paid compensation to any Somali civilians injured or killed in airstrikes. Under the Trump administration, the Pentagon also quietly scrapped a programme making it a legal requirement to prevent and respond to civilian deaths. 'I don't know where the money for the operation will come from,' Guled said. 'I left the children's father back at the farm in Jamaame to protect our crops from wild animals. He also doesn't have money to reach Mogadishu.'
The airstrikes were conducted alongside Somali ground forces in a joint operation led by the US military's Africa command, suggesting the possibility that some casualties may have been inflicted by those troops. Witness testimonies, however, all describe the Jamaame casualties being caused by bombs dropped from drones, rather than fire from ground troops. US officials would not answer questions over Somali forces' role in the attack.
Guled has no doubts over the origin of the strikes that injured her children, insisting they had not been inflicted by infantry weapons. 'It is the Americans who are responsible for our suffering,' she said. The US Department of War did not respond to a series of detailed questions regarding the airstrikes on Jamaame.
