Although long spells of drought have been blamed for the food crisis in much of Somalia, the tax regime introduced by the militant sect al-Shabaab in areas under its control has driven farmers away from their farms, a senior government official has said.
For the past two years Somalia has been grappling with a severe drought, rendering millions of people food insecure in the Horn of Africa country where farmers have struggled with agricultural activities for survival.
al-Shabaab has turned to the use of taxes to raise revenue in areas under its control, according to the new government of President Sheikh Hassan Mohamud.
Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, Mohamud’s appointee to assess the drought situation in the country said farmers have not been exempted from Shabaab taxes, driving droves of them away from their farms into seeking refuge elsewhere.
As thousands of farmers flee farms, agriculture has been the main casualty in the central and south of the country large swathes of which are under the control of the insurgents who have been waging a jihadist conflict with the central government since 2008.
According to a 2020 report by the Hiraal Institute, Shabaab tax collectors in one instance collected over $15 million from businesses and other concerns active in these regions.
Aside from violence, other means of extortion have been used by the al-Qaeda-affiliated sect to raise money from businesses and individuals, witnesses have said.
However, since the coronavirus pandemic reached Somalia, Shabaab has resorted to extending this tax regime to farmers in a bid to generate resources by which to fund its decades-old insurgency against the Somali state.
Warsame said although the drought has been bad enough, farmers are being forced to leave their farming areas thanks to Shabaab imposing taxes for every stage of the farming process including planting, and harvesting crops by those staying put to continue with their farming activities.
According to him, the taxes on livestock are even bigger than the amounts being sold for those animals.
In the past the sect had claimed its tax system was meant to raise money to fund its humanitarian relief program to provide succor to victims of the drought and resultant famine.
ML/as/APA