Somalia president Hassan Mohamud admits al-Shabaab is training Boko Haram fighters

SOMALIAN president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has admitted that al-Shabaab terrorists in his country are offering training to Boko Haram fighters who then take the knowledge they have gained back to Nigeria to cause mayhem.

 

Over the last 20 years, Somalia has been plagued by political in-fighting, corruption and attacks by al Shabaab insurgents. Since the collapse of its last proper government in 1991, Somalia has made limited progress towards creating a functioning state and this political vacuum has created a breeding ground for terrorist groups.

 

Speaking yesterday in Germany at a security conference, President Mohamud said it was necessary for Nigeria and Somalis to cooperate on security matters to thwart the terrorists. He added that unless Somalia became stable, the whole of the African continent remained at risk from terrorism as the country would remain a training ground.

 

President Mohamud said: “Without a stable Somalia, the whole region of the Horn of Africa will remain unstable and by and large, the African continent. There is proof and evidence that for some time Boko Haram has been trained in Somalia and they went back to Nigeria.

 

“These terrorists are so linked together. They are associated and so organised that we the world need to be organised too.”

 

Boko Haram who has pledged its allegiance to Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (Isis) has been waging a war of insurgency against Nigeria in 1999. Somalia’s al-Shabaab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, wants to overthrow the Somali government and impose a harsh version of the Islamic sharia law in the country.