No let up in Somalia unrest after arrest of Al Shabab’s top leader
nairobi — Somalia saw a third day of protests on Saturday over the arrest of the former No. 2 leader of the Al Shabab extremist group, who has been a leading candidate for a regional presidency. Officials said at least eight people have been killed so far as angry supporters take to the streets and clash with police.
The African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia in a statement released overnight called for “utmost restraint” after the gunfirefueled uproar around Muhktar Robow’s arrest on Thursday in Baidoa, and it denied playing any role.
His arrest is seen as a high-profile test of Somalia’s treatment of defectors from the Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab, Africa’s most active extremist group. Somalia’s government welcomed the defection last year by Al Shabab’s former spokesman but not his popular candidacy to lead Southwest state, which took some officials by surprise.
Robow was seized by Ethiopian troops accompanied by Somali police, witnesses told. He was flown to the capital, Mogadishu, a Somali intelligence official said. Some Somali lawmakers had accused the AU mission of being involved.
Ethiopia’s military, which contributes troops to the African Union mission, has not commented. Robow’s arrest could re-ignite old tensions between Somalia and neighbouring Ethiopia despite recent diplomatic breakthroughs in the Horn of Africa sparked by Ethiopia’s reformist new prime minister.
Somalia’s security ministry confirmed Robow’s arrest, citing the federal government’s earlier ban on his candidacy, which said he had not completed the defection process.
The ministry also alleged that Robow had failed to renounce extremist ideology. —