The President of Somali transitional federal government Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed has wholeheartedly welcomed the decision by the UK government that added Somalia’s Alqaeda proxy Al shabab into the list of international terrorist groups this week.
During a press conference at the presidential palace Thursday president Sheik Sharif said that his government was very happy to hear such a hard decision against Al shabab which the UK government announced this week that it is outlawed in Britain.
“Britain’s decision to add Al shabab into the list of terrorists was a good step but came late, because there is no doubt that Shababs are terrorists, we are welcoming the move and we are calling on all governments to take such steps against Al shabab” Somali president told a press conference Thursday.
Meanwhile the president has strongly condemned the ban by Al shabab on aid agencies including the world Food program which the group banned from operating in Somalia and threatened to kill everyone who works with the world food agency.
“Somali people are dying and they need international assistance so the group’s barbaric restriction against WFP shows that terrorists are committed to destroying the lives of all Somalis” he stated.
Leaders of Al shabab which was already put on the list of terrorist organizations by the US government said in the past that they are very happy to be included into the list and vowed to continue fighting until they govern the entire world under their Taliban-style Islamic rule.
In 2006 the group was the military wing of the Somali Islamic courts Union which defeated the once powerful warlords in the second half of the year before they were ousted by joint Ethiopian-Somali government forces late December 2006.
Wars in the restive capital alone have engulfed the lives of more than 21,000 Somalis mainly civilians and displaced more than 1.5 million others from their homes in Mogadishu.
The United Nations is saying that more than 3.5 million people in Somalia, about half of the country’s total population need emergency life-saving food aid.
Somalia hasn’t had a functioning central government since the 1991 downfall of the former military government of the late dictator General Mohamed Siyad Bare. Wars and famine have killed more than half a million people since then.