Mogadishu (Alshahid) -Somali rebel group Al-Shabaab, has ordered the business community and people in areas they control to accept the US dollar without distinction, despite the United States having branded the movement a terrorist organisation in 2008.
According to Africa Review, Sheikh Ali Mohamed Hussein, the group’s governor in the capital Mogadishu, on Thursday said that the business community was now compelled to accept for transaction and exchange purposes all US dollars including those that were damaged or old.
Somalia traders who reacted to the governor’s instruction following a meeting with him cautiously welcomed the decision, saying it would make doing business with the citizenry easier.
Some of the dollars in circulation have also reportedly been rejected by the people on account of damage or overuse.
Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda inspired movement, is the strongest militia group opposing the fragile Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Somalia.
It controls a substantial area of the central and southern regions of the country, a territory that largely includes the capital.
People, however, find it odd that the militia recently rejected the use of the Somali Shilling printed by the government and even the group publicly burnt the local currency, and in upcountry regions confiscated the shilling while enforcing the use of the dollar.
Al shabab rebels are strongly opposed to the Somalia government and the presence of peacekeepers serving the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), and have been engaged in armed struggle against it. Alshahid
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