Hargeisa, Somaliland – Outside his two bedroom house made of tin in the heart of Hargeisa, capital of the breakaway Somaliland region, Kosar Dhool cuts an exhausted figure burdened with events far heavier than his slim frame can bear.
The father of five has been receiving phone calls from his son, Hamza, who has been captured and held for ransom by human smugglers in an unknown location in Libya.
“He called to say they are going to take out his kidneys and sell them for money if I don’t pay the $2,100 ransom,” Dhool told Al Jazeera, sitting on a plastic chair under a tree that barely provided shade from the boiling midday sun.
Hamza, 18, is a bright high school student with much promise ahead of him. He is well-liked in his neighbourhood and everyone here is in a state of shock at his capture.
For the past two years, Dhool had been working extra shifts to save up enough money to send Hamza to university in the hope he would then be able to help the family support his younger siblings.
“He was my best hope, very intelligent,” Dhool said, rubbing sweat from his receding greying hairline, as four of his other children sat around him.
“I still don’t know what got to him to risk his life.”