Friday November 19, 2021
MOGADISHU (HOL) - An intelligence agent who previously worked with Al-Shabaab and ISIS in Somalia was Tuesday night kidnapped by suspected Al-Shabaab operatives in Mogadishu.
Sources said Moalim Abdullahi Dilip aka Sergito was picked by suspected militants from his house in Daynille district, Mogadishu Tuesday night. The suspects reportedly cut through the iron-sheet house and went away with Sergito.
The government has not commented on the matter but National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) agents and policemen arrived at the scene following the kidnap.
Born in 1986, Sergito joined Al-Shabaab in 2008 where he worked as a translator owing to his understanding of Somali, Arabic and English languages.
However, he defected to ISIS in 2014 where he was recruited by the group founder in Somalia Abdulqadir Mumin. In ISIS, Sergito headed the media department where he produced propaganda videos for the group.
He later defected to the government and was enlisted by NISA just like many other former extremist defectors.
Before his abduction, Sergito criticized Al-Shabaab in interviews for a programme which runs on the state-owned SNTV featuring former Al-Shabaab and ISIS defectors.