Somali choices

Poverty and unemployment drives Somalis to migration or terrorism. According to a recently-released United Nations, the unemployment rate for Somalis between the ages of 14 and 29 is 61 per cent for men and 74 per cent for women. The UN’s Somalia Human Development Report 2012 shockingly states that 82 per cent of the population is poverty-stricken, with 73 per cent struggling to exist on less than $2 a day. Somalis under 30 form the bulk of the population, with 66 per cent desperate to leave by any means to escape poverty and deprivation.

Deputy director of the Somali Youth Association Osman Moalim Ibrahim states that poverty is the driving force behind the despair and resulting violent tendencies of the country’s young people. He adds that the pirate gangs and criminal groups are mostly composed of young Somalis who have given up the struggle to find work and better themselves. Only 40 per cent of those unemployed are actively seeking jobs, with the remainder prey to recruitment by criminal gangs and pirate groups.