Somalis must not show need for humanitarian assistance: Al Shabaab

As hundreds of displaced Somalis, who live in Al shabaab controlled regions in southern and central Somalia because of the severe droughts and reached at the capital Mogadishu, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, an Al shabaab official, on Friday called for Somalia’s poor and needy people not show need for humanitarian aid agencies’ assistance.

sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, an Al Shabaab official, on Friday called for Somalia’s poor and needy people not show need for assistance from humanitarian aid agencies. Aweys said that the extremist group will never let relief organizations operate and help the needy Somali people in the regions controlled by Al Shabaab. The former leader of the dismantled Hizbul Islam organization also claimed that relief organizations offered aid in a colonial way.
Aweys charged aid agencies operating in Somalia with being ostentatious, reiterating that all needy Somalis should not to seek assistance from those organizations. He accused the groups of attempting to promulgate Christianity in Somalia’s Muslim society.
The United States charges that Aweys has links with Al Qaeda. In April, the U.S. froze the assets of people accused of being terrorists. Aweys is among them.
In other developments, at least four people were killed and two others hurt after Al Shabaab militants clashed with local clan militias of pastoral herders in the Middle Shabelle region in southern Somalia.
The confrontation is reported to have broken after Al Shabaab tried to mediate between two clan militias who disputed grazing land and wells in the coastal district of Warsheikh northeast of Mogadishu.