On the rickshaw ride to the hospital, Marian Haji Abdi Guled felt a mixture of joy and apprehension: the day they had been waiting for had finally arrived. Almost a year earlier, her then seven-year-old son, Abdiqadir Salah, had been seriously injured, alongside his two siblings, in what a Guardian investigation found was a US drone strike on the village of Jamaame in Somalia that killed at least 12 civilians, including eight children. Abdiqadir’s small body had been impaled by shrapnel in the attack, and several chunks remained embedded in his back.
Doctors feared that without an operation to remove them, the boy would lose his ability to walk, but Guled had no money for an operation. For 10 months, the family had languished in Mogadishu with growing expenses and no income – unable to afford surgery, but unwilling to let the boy return to the village without it. After the investigation, which told the story of Guled and other civilians affected by the attack, a group of Guardian readers from across the globe fundraised for Abdiqadir’s surgery and recovery.
Within a few hours, enough money was raised to cover his treatment and rehabilitation, as well as any medical expenses and treatment for her other two children, who sustained less extensive injuries. I didn’t know people like this existed,” Guled said. Doctors told Guled the surgery had been successful, but complex.
While the first two pieces of shrapnel from the missile had been successfully removed, taking out the final piece was considered too risky, possibly resulting in paralysis, so they concluded that it was safer to leave it and monitor his condition. When the Guardian visited Abdiqadir a few weeks later, he appeared bright, energised and visibly happy. The US has not responded to any questions about the Jamaame attack.
In the months since then, US attacks on the area have continued: from December 2025 to July 2026, it carried out at least three airstrikes around Jamaame, according to research by New America, a security thinktank that documents US military operations abroad. Residents say drones continue to fly above the town. She still wants answers from the US government, nearly a year after they were bombed.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
