According to the families of the victims, the two girls aged 10 and 11 respectively were living with their grandmother in Wardhigley neighborhood of Mogadishu when Ahmedsalan raped them.

"He used to rape the girls repeatedly for two years now. He used to threaten and intimidate the girls. He used to live the same villa and whenever the grandmother left home, he used to get his knife and threatened to kill the young girls,” said Mama Asho, one of the mothers of the victims.

Asho has never travelled out of Mogadishu but one morning in December she received a call from an al-Shabaab official and informed her to arrive at the militant court in Lower Shabelle.  

"I did not know how they obtained my contact.  I was very frightened because I am a civilian. I do not know why they [al-Shabaab] would want me for their court,” Asho narrates as she later realized that it is Abdi, the Somali-Swiss citizen who gave her contact to al-Shabaab militants.

Al-Shabaab has now transformed as a criminal racketeering group extorting money from businesses and government officials and even offering services for criminal individuals who need contract killing, according to a Juneid Ayanle who leads a local non-profit rights group Somali Progressive Council. 

"Many survivors and victims of rape – particularly those from the minority – are unable to access government courts. To the worse, the rapists hire al-Shabaab militants to threaten their victims. That way justice dies,” he said. Mr. Ayanle

Last week, Mama Asho who is the mother to one of the victims filed a case at the Office of the Attorney General to seek justice for the girls. According to the document seen by Horn Observer.

"We are waiting for justice. It is very painful when your young daughter is raped and the rapist gets protection by the armed militants with the financial support coming from his father who lives in Switzerland,” said Abdirahman Omar, a father of one of the victims.

Investigations, prosecutions and convictions for rape and other forms of sexual violence are rare in Somalia, so survivors have little incentive to file complaints with the police. Some women have faced additional abuse and stigmatization if they do report the crime.

According to the United Nations report, majority of the cases of rape take place in the displacement camps with at least 70 per cent of these being carried out by armed men wearing government uniforms. Nearly a third of the survivors are reported to be under the age of 18.