Somalia’s Al-Shabab sends warning to educational institutions

[Deeq A.]

MOGADISHU (Caasimada Online) — Somalia’s radical Islamist group Al Shabaab has warned country’s educational institutions to work closely with government of Somalia.

In an audio recording aired by Radio Andalus, al-Shabab’s mouthpiece, group’s spokesman Ali Dhere said it would take firm action against leaders of educational institutions if not stop working with government of Somalia and other foreign agencies.

Mohamoud accused the educational agencies of working closely with the federal government of Somalia.

He says the educational agencies started to express support and work with government of Somalia, warning them not work with Somali government.

The group says foreign agencies target schools and universities in the country to propagate their views to the students.

Over its 11-year existence, al-Shabab has often moved to shut down non-Islamic schools and replace them with schools that teach a strongly religious curriculum.

A report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said 3 million Somali children between the ages of six and 18 were not in school, mostly in central and southern Somalia.

In 2013, the government launched a program called Go-2-School (G2S) to break the cycle of illiteracy and poverty in Somalia by sending one million children to free public schools. But the program failed a year later due to insecurity and lack of funding.

The group was ousted from the capital, Mogadishu, in August 2011, but still has a presence in large areas of southern Somalia and often stages attacks across Somalia.

Somalia has remained in the grip of on-again, off-again violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.

Al-Shabaab, which is waging an insurgency against the Somali government, has recently suffered several significant blows, losing most of its strongholds in southern and central to Somalia army and and African Union troops.

Caasimada Online
Mogadishu News Desk
Caasimada@live.com