Ethiopian Review

MOGADISHU – Somali insurgent group Al-Shabaab has banned the activities of United Nations agencies for engaging in “anti-Islamic activities.”

The Islamist movement, which strongly opposes the Transitional Government has accused UN agencies such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) and United Nations Department of Safety and Security (NDSS) of being engaged in undesirable activities, hence banning them.

“The banned agencies have been engaged in anti-Islamic activities,” a statement by the group said. “They have been helping the TFG and the pro-government forces stationed at the Somali borders to defeat the Islamist groups,” it added.

In the press release issued by the office of Al-Shabaab in-charge of Policies And Regional Affairs, local Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and international bodies will be required to register with an Islamist agency empowered to supervise the work of the agencies. The instruction shall be applied to organisations operating in parts of Somalia controlled by Al-Shabaab.

Effective today, Monday 20th of July, the supervisory office will control the work of all the local and international agencies. The organisations will also be required to report their activities to the office.

“All NGOs are instructed to the supervisory office,” asserted the statement.

The UN organisations have been blamed for spearheading a campaign to secure a financial pledge amounting to US$ 250 million on April 23, 2009 by the international community in Brussels, Belgium to support the TFG and the African Union Mission in Somalia, a peacekeeping operation better known as Amisom. “These agencies are against the establishment of an Islamic state in Somalia,” said the statement.

The statement also justified an earlier decision by Al-Shabaab to suspend the work of two US humanitarian agencies, namely CARE and IMC. The two NGOs were censured for allegedly assisting the killers of Aden Hashi Farah Ayro’, a top military strategist of Al Shabaab who was killed on 1st of May 2008 by an American missile strike. Ayro’ and some of his close colleagues died in Dusamareb town in Central Somalia.

The statement pointed a finger at CARE and IMC for spying for foreign agencies.

- By ABDULKADIR KHALIF | Daily Nation