Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has disclosed that Al-Shabaab is funding terrorists in Nigeria, where Boko Haram and ISWAP are rooted.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said Al-Shabaab is also financing other militant groups across Africa.
The group, which has been earmarked as one of the most dangerous terrorist organization with links to Al-Qaida, controls huge swathes of rural central and southern Somalia, and had vowed to topple the UN-backed government, which is yet exposed to fragility.
Mohamud made the revelation at Ankara in Türkiye during his visit to thousands of soldiers and police officers training in the country.
“We have evidence that the money collected by Al-Shabaab is used in financing terror groups in Mozambique and Nigeria with some going to Al-Qaeda.
Al-Shabaab is the East Africa franchise of Al-Qaeda which is deep-seated in the Middle East and North Africa.
“We’ll shut down these revenue streams”, vowed Mohamud who assumed office in May 2022.
The 66-year-old President is the founder and chairman of the Union for Peace and Development Party.
According to the United States African Command, Al-Shabaab is the most funded Al-Qaeda partner on the continent.
In a report, Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute of Policy Studies said the franchise operates with an annual budget of $100million.
The New Diplomat had on Tuesday reported that the Kuje prison facility in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja was attacked by terrorists.
According to one of the sources, the terrorists invaded the facility around 9:05 pm and operated till 1:30 am on Wednesday morning.
He added that over 800 inmates including terrorists escaped during the attack by gunmen.
Some of the terrorists who fled and were later nabbed after fighters of the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) bombed the facility have vowed to ‘eliminate’ the military commanders behind their arrest and detention.
Most of the terrorists who had spent years at the prison facility were said to have been arrested by some military officers who ‘involuntarily’ retired from service in 2016.
Some of the officers, who were unjustly retired but won court judgements for their reinstatement included Col. Danladi Ribbah Hassan, Col. Auwal Suleiman and Lt. Col. Mohammed Abdulfatai, who had led several missions that neutralised hundreds of Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists, prior to their ‘sudden’ removal from the Nigerian Army.
