Hiiraan Online
Saturday, April 4, 2015
MINNEAPOLIS (HOL) --- In the wake of recent deadly attacks at a Mogadishu hotel and a Kenyan university campus, the former Somali prime minister calls for the United States government to change its anti terrorism approach towards Somalia and Africa.
Speaking to the NBC News television, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmaajo) says changing Africa's terrorism course could be a groundbreaking for the US. Among those changes is for western nations to help build an army in Somalia.
"Using soldiers from neighbouring countries, some with old border disputes with Somalia to fight in Somalia gives Al-Shabab propaganda argument for recruitment" Said the former PM
"What the U-S and its allies need to do is to build a (Somali) national army that's capable to defend its government and for the people." He said.
Mohamed further stated that having a strong Somali army means a stable Somalia that can defeat the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabab group which is waging a deadly insurgency in the horn of Africa nation.
"If western nations train, supply and finance an effective fighting force in Somalia, Al-Shabab would be less capable to carry out attacks through the region." He emphasized.
On its counter-terrorism strategy towards Somalia, the United States provides its major support to the African Union force in Somalia to enhance counter-terrorism capacity in Somalia and throughout the broader region. That benchmark often draws questions on the US's 'trivial' secondary support to the Somalia's national armed forces.
In its annual counter-terrorism review report issued in 2013, the United States government said that despite suffering significant losses and driven out of major urban areas, Al-Shabaab has returned to a strategy focused on asymmetric attacks intended to discredit and destabilize the nascent Federal Government of Somalia.