US forces accused of ‘weaponising’ Somalia’s floods by trapping women and children in the path of El Niño

A colonel from US special operations in Somalia with a soldier from a branch of the Somali army trained by US special forces, in Mogadishu in 2023. Photograph: Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images

The water was rising rapidly. It had already reached Cayni Ali’s waist. Her home, five metres from the flooded River Juba in southern Somalia, never stood a chance. There was nowhere to go. Ali’s city of Jilib was under attack. Repeated airstrikes, said the mother of six, were pinning its population beside the rising river.

“The drones come all the time,” said the 27-year-old. “We hear them constantly. They kill animals, civilians. The town is big but destruction is everywhere.”