The human cost of surging US air strikes in Somalia

Nearly a year after a November 2025 offensive around Jamaame in Jubaland, Abdiqadir Salah, then seven, still has shrapnel lodged near his hip. His mother, Maryam Haji Abdi Guled, takes him to school herself, fearing that a knock could move the fragment; doctors warn that removing it could paralyse him. Survivors interviewed by Al Jazeera describe deaths, injuries, displacement and lost livelihoods during the operation involving US air strikes and Somali ground forces. AFRICOM recorded 84 strikes in Somalia through September 2026 but disputes allegations that US aircraft caused civilian casualties in Jamaame.