The Somali youth crime problem has become a high priority in the United States

The rising violence in the Somali community in Minnesota

Minnesota is now home to the country’s largest concentration of Somali immigrants. Most

Somali immigrants reside in the metro area, with the greatest number in Minneapolis.

Almost a third of Minnesota public school students speak Somali at home. Smaller populations of Somalis reside in Rochester, Owatonna, and other suburban and Greater Minnesota Communities.

The increase in the Somali population in Minneapolis has greatly transformed the City’s social and economic landscape.

The number of Somali-oriented businesses along Lake Street and in the Cedar-Riverside area is increasing. Today, more than 120 African-owned businesses reside along Minneapolis’ Lake Street corridor. Many Somalis also contribute to the Minnesota economy by working to provide services to other Somalis, or by engaging in various other entrepreneurial efforts.

Sometime in 2005, in Minneapolis area began a series of armed robberies committed in Somali residential and businesses area. Law enforcement officials confirmed later that gang members comprised by Somali juveniles carried out the crimes.

Somali Gangs: Fact or Fiction?

Some people talking about Somali teenagers taken over Riverside Park in Minneapolis and kids in the neighborhood rarely venture there anymore. Some described the Somali gangs as rude, uncivil and not quite human. They knock people down and beat them while stealing from them. But the reality is that Somali elders are in denial and they avoiding to admit the existence of the gang and to collaborate with the law enforcement in order to fight these criminals and prevent other kids joint the gang.

The Twin Cities authority considering Ground Zero located in and around a quintet of residential towers in the Cedar-Riverside community on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota campus. Those structures, known as Riverside Plaza, and the neighborhood surrounding them, contain the largest concentration of East African immigrants—mostly Somalis—in the state and possibly in the country.

Some Somali activists acknowledge that Somali youth gangs may exist. “There aren’t Somali gangs in the same sense as in other cultures,” they say, “but there are groups of youth who hang out together and commit crimes”. Some take names like the Somali Hard Boys and adapt the dress and language of gangs. The West Bank has more of this problem than any other area of the city. This is a particular problem with seniors in the high-rises. They complain about disrespect and misbehavior of the youth.

Somali Gang Violence out of Control

The root causes of the Somali gang violence within the Twin Cities Somali community are hard to pinpoint and is complex to decipher. It is not isolated to Somalis in Minneapolis. Same thing is happening in other Somali Diaspora communities to lesser degrees compared to one in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Once a while, one hears or reads news about Somali teenage or young man gunned down in places like Seattle, Toronto and London, UK. Other immigrant and refugee communities have either gone or going through this problem of gang violence.

In Minneapolis has been killed several Somali Youth. A 19-year old came for a hair cut to get ready for the Eid Al-Fitr festivities. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it. His life was cut short by a bullet probably from another Somali teenager. Just a week before, a Somali family buried their 20 year old son, a third year college student, who was shot in front of community center where he was volunteering to tutor and mentor younger kids. Three months before that, in the same place of the community center, slain was a 31 year old youth mentor and basketball coach. Two months before that, 18 years old high school graduate was killed in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. These youngsters were killed by other youngsters within the Somali community.

Somali teenage boys are going crazy and most have guns with them. Random shootings have become the only way they settle score.

No one seems to know how to prevent more shootings to happen. There are some who are trying to come up with solutions and among them is newly formed Somali college student organization called the Youth against Violence Committee.

Somali Community in the Twin Cities is now challenged more than ever to find ways to deal with this gang violence phenomenon. A whole community plan to deal and address this gang violence among Somali youth is needed. Somali parents, families, community leaders, college students all have to come together, stop the blame and escape-goat game and act. A concerted effort is needed from everyone, especially families and community activists to mentor these lost and violent kids so that we can prevent the senseless killing of our youngsters and the grieving of Somali mothers.

There are some Somali activists that working hard to reduce the gang violence and make sure that more youngsters resist joining gang groups.

New Phenomenon – Somali Youngsters disappearance

In Minneapolis, three Somali families tell similar stories: A son or nephew disappears. A passport is gone. Days later the phone rings, and the teen says he's in Somalia.

The phone call is abrupt and short on details. And then, nothing.

Breaking their monthlong silence, relatives of three teenagers said that they fear their loved ones are victims, brainwashed to return to Somalia to fight.

One Somali young man who disappeared from Minneapolis earlier is believed to have killed himself in an Oct. 29 suicide bombing that also took the lives of more than 20 people in northern Somalia.

It’s believed that the three teens knew one another and were friends, each teen contacted his family only once after disappearing, saying he was either in Somalia or in its capital city of Mogadishu. The teens haven't been heard from since.

The Somali population in Minnesota was more than 24,000 in 2006, according to the U.S. Census. Local activists claim the actual number is higher.