The President of the Federal Republic of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has on Tuesday delivered a speech at Turkey's SETA Institute focusing on mutual ties between the two nations and Anti-terror combat. In his remarks, he underscored mutual collaboration between Mogadishu and Ankara is based on Mutual respect, cooperation and solidarity during complex times.
Furthermore, the head of state stressed the significance of targeting Alshabab terrorists financially, militarily and ideologically in order to deracinate " we have enough experience in Anti-terror war taking advantage of that, the Somali government will intensify its pursuit of the radical insurgents and the world should line up with our shoulders in that direction. He highlighted.
While navigating through his second overseas visit in Turkey after being officially invited by his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyib Erdogan. Turkey is a unique country for Somalia president Mohamud says with its support to Somalia in diverse aspects focusing on the significance of Turkey's support for Somalia in the fight against extremist insurgents he said.
" While overcoming the post-conflict challenges, fragility and economic stagnation "
the insurgents make it more complex for Somalia to recover and this is a field where we identified who is the real friend and real brother of Somalia or not we are very much appreciated and grateful for the world in general they sponsored us but that support was not proportional in all aspects, so that is where mainly Turkey is unique.
Emphasizing on the counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence operations against the insurgents, Mohamud said they had implemented.some brutal policies in the past in the fight against extremist and now we have learned a lessons from them, appreciated to the containment policy we have implemented so far, we effectively thwarted the extremist organization from spilling over to the neighboring countries, the continent and the whole world.
Somalia has foiled numerous and devastating incursions and explosions and contained Alshabab in the country with thus policy he said by elaborating further if the insurgents was not forestalled in the region. May be it would more perilous meanwhile, elucidating the second stride is to defend and degrade the extremist groups he said. "We minimize and crippled the capability of Alshabab so that they cannot organize, but it is not enough again for us"
Pointing out clearly that all these two policies are Military-centered, Mohamud underlined that it is necessary to pursue the fight against Alshebab at the various levels. Meanwhile, Somalia's ultimate goal was to obliterate terrorism, he cited and the Military approach is very crucial and fundamental. But it is not enough by itself he underlined. We develop a new policy that is a paradigm shift and we want to launch Multi-Pronged incursions and confront them on three diverse fronts.
He elaborated Mogadishu has proceeded to implement a lot of pressure Militarily and also ideologically, they are propagating the wrong version of Islam, the third is economic because Alshabab is financing themselves from the inside and accumulating huge taxes.
Militarily Turkey has been sponsoring Somalia by providing training, equipment, intelligence, surveillance services and so on he cited. In their economic struggle against Alshabab he said Turkey, The United States, The United Kingdom and the European Union can provide support for Somalia so that Somalia will be able to obliterate the reign of terror of Alshabab.
Somalia has a new dawn with new government. It has been delayed but at least we have free, fair, credible and transparent elections accomplished in a peaceful manner. Somalia's post-election power transition was peaceful and orderly.
It clarifies that Somalia's state institutions and democracy are maturing and functioning properly. The serious challenge Somalia is encountering is the extremist insurgents saying the country has been battling against terrorism for almost two decades.
Also, highlighting the significance of political equanimity, he said security is developing rapidly in this regard Mohamud also attended a panel on two countries' bilateral relations and Cooperation organized by the Ankara... based political, economic and social Research foundation.[SETA] This was Mohamud's first official visit to Turkey at the presidential level after assuming office in May 15, 2022. He also served as Somalia's eight presidents between 2012-2017 and currently, he is the 10th president of Somalia after being officially inaugurated in Mogadishu on 9, June, 2022.
Turkish Ambassador to Mogadishu Mehmet Yilmaz, noting that Turkey's efforts for drought Response and the alleviation of the dire humanitarian crisis in 2011 initiated to reverse the negative view and bleak stereotype towards Somalia overseas Yilmaz stated that the efforts in the fields of security, health and academic began to produce positive outcomes.
The president of the Federal Republic of Somalia H.E Hassan Sheikh Mohamud visited the Turkish special forces Military academy in SPARTA. The president was warmly welcomed by senior officials from the Ministry of Defence and Turkish armed forces; the president was briefed by the instructors and officials at the Military academy regarding the overall status and the quality of Somali special forces. that currently undergoing advanced and sophisticated training at the military academy in ISPARTA.
The visit included a lunch meeting with Somali Military commanders and officers undergoing commando training at the Military academy. The president debriefed the Military recruits about the government's plan in restructuring the Somali national army and validating the overall security in the country eulogizing their commitments and sacrifice to defend the country and the people.
The president was accompanied by the Minister of Defense of the federal government of Somalia H.E Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur, national security advisor to the president Mr Hussein Moallim Mohamud, Somali Ambassador to Turkey Mr Jama Abdullahi Aided, the Military attache at the Somali Embassy in Turkey General Mohamed Mohamud Hussein and chief of staff at the presidency Mr Hussein Sheikh Mohamud.
At the end, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud acknowledged the Turkish government for their essential role in training and equipping the Somali army, noting the value of the government and the restoration of overall security of the country. In the past years, Thousands of Somali special forces had graduated from the special force training academy in ISPARTA Turkiye.
On the other hand president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has vowed to defend and annihilate all revenue streams for Alshabab, the Islamist Militants believed to make millions of dollars per year from huge taxes they levy or impose in the large swathe of territory of Somalia under their stewardship as experts cited Alshabab domineers one-third of Somali territory
as recently illustrated by Jamal Mohamed Osman a veteran journalist working for London-based British channel 4 Television. Who had frequently traveled to the Alshabab territory in his documentary dubbed "Inside Alshabab " in which he held an exclusive interview with Alshabab deputy leader Mahad Karate whose head was placed $5 million bounty by the US.
But security experts say defunding or cutting off the extremist funds and freezing their assets won't be an easy task and it will be time-consuming. Somalia's president Hassan Sheikh this week declared that his government will crack down and decimate funding streams for Alshabab militant groups.
Addressing on Tuesday Somali troops training in Turkey, Mohamud accused the group of using extorted taxes to assist and finance terrorism across Africa and the world. His remarks were broadcasted live on Somali national Television. Mohamud says they have empirical evidence to substantiate and even present it to the world that the money accumulated by Alshabab is used in funding terror groups in Mozambique and Nigeria with some going to Al-Qaeda terrorists. And ruled out any form of negotiation.
The president did not elaborate on the evidence in a detailed manner, which the militant group rebuffed in a Thursday press release issued as " ludicrous and baseless accusations " Mohamud's comments was the first by Somalia's sitting president and his government jointly acknowledge that Alshabab earns millions through extortions.
The UN panel of experts report on Somalia earlier this year Said Alshabab has approximately 100 checkpoints throughout the country where they impose hefty taxation on trucks transporting consignments of goods. The Mogadishu-based Hiraal Institute a security Think-tank that analyzes overall security challenges estimates Alshabab earns plenty to spend $24 million annually on weapons.
Security experts unanimously concurred a crack down on Terrorism funding would mark a departure from Somalia's previous government, which focused more on soft power approach which ended in futile and now initiated hard power approach and accelerate the longstanding deradicalization program in which senior commanders of Alshabab defected and surrendered to the federal government. It won't be easy Matt Bryden is a security expert and strategic analyst in Britain and the founder and executive director at Kenyan-based Sahan foundation Think-tank.
Speaking via a messaging application, he says Alshabab has a sophisticated system of tax collection while government oversight of banking and Islamic money transfer called "Hawala" is poor the group is also able to move its funds around Somalia due to without an Anti-Money laundering scheme and conduct transactions and transfers partly because of the flimsy regulatory financial framework in Somalia "Bryden Said"
the poor accountability in banking system, the remittance systems or" Hawala" that are still very poorly overseen by the government. Alshabab has also exploited these weaknesses to the maximum and So "a government crack down on the financial sector and tightening up the loopholes is also going to be key to combating Alshabab and drying up its resource base"
Bryden says Mohamud, who was elected in May, after highly competitive and third round voting is already taking giant security strides against the Islamist Militants. Somalia's Danab special forces have been back in action against Alshabab in several areas of the country. With the objective to stamp out the remnants of the extremist groups.
Abdurahman Sheikh Azhari is the director of the Mogadishu-based centre for analysis and strategic studies ( CASS) He say multiple fronts are required to defeat Alshabab including Military operations, counter-espionage battling against their finances and combating their perverted ideology.
The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Militants have been battling against Somalia's western-backed government and African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia since their deployment in 2007 and are willing to impose strict Sharia law. The US announced in Mid-May that it would re-established a military presence in Somalia to sponsor and accelerate the fight against the Militants by deploying additional US troops after President Joe Biden authorizes US troops have been pulled out from Somalia in 2020.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
MOHAMED HUSSEIN MENTALIST. Author, blogger, prominent researcher, Horn of Africa Affairs analyst and senior lecturer at Mogadishu University.
AUTHOR. Holds BA in English Language and literature at Mogadishu University and BA in Business administration at Simad University. Master of arts in applied Linguistics at Kisii University in Nairobi as well as Master of peace and conflict studies at Uppsala University in Sweden
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