Somalia has a year to remove the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militant group from the country, according to a statement by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Tuesday, with the target date for remaining African Union peacekeepers yo exit looming next December.
Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab has been waging a deadly conflict against the Somali government since 2006 in a an attempt to establish its own rule based on a precise interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.
Mohamud, who is serving his second term as president, had said in August that he wanted to abolish it by early next year.
The President had further remarked that the focus was on curbing “the residual” al Shabaab, but this task had been made more strenuous by recent dangerous flooding, although on the other hand, the floods have made it harder for the militants to deposit landmines.
Mohamud’s recent campaign against al Shabaab began in August 2022, with the military banding together behind clan-based militias in central Somalia.
This rare partnership helped produce the major significant territorial gains against the militants since the mid-2010s, but the al Shabaab has continued to organize deadly attacks against military and civilian targets.
This most recent phase is meant to advance into southern Somalia, the traditional fortress of al Shabaab.
President Mohamud had concluded the statement by saying that there was an acute need for the international community to assist Somalia with its military efforts and to build up its state institutions, offer basic services such as health and education, and remodel its infrastructure.
