Somali rebel group 'shares' abducted French agents with Al-Qaeda proxies

One hostage handed over to Al-Shabaab ‘to avoid clashes between islamists’

Abdiaziz Hassan and Abdi Sheikh

Reuters

NAIROBI: A Somali Islamist group has handed over one of two French hostages to Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militants to avoid clashes between the two insurgent bands, rebels and officials said on Thursday. Gunmen from an Islamist faction within President Sheikh Sharif Ahmad’s security forces seized the two in a Mogadishu hotel on Tuesday, then handed them to Hizbul Islam insurgents.

But Al-Shabaab – which is also fighting the Somali government – demanded that Hizbul Islam give the French security men to them.

“We shared the two men to avoid clashes between Isla­mists,” an Al-Shabaab official told Reuters by telephone.

Senior police officer Abdiqa­dir Odweyne and another high-ranking official confirmed Hiz­bul Islam had handed over the senior of the two French officials.

Western security services view Al-Shabaab as a proxy for Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network in the failed Horn of Africa state, which has been mired in conflict since 1991.

“The higher-ranking French official was taken by Al-Shaabab and the other remained with [Sheikh Hassan] Dahir Aweys,” Odweyne said, referring to the head of Hizbul Islam.

Earlier in the day, Al-Sha­baab fighters had surrounded Aweys’ house, where the two Frenchmen were being held, and threatened to storm it, witnesses said.

A Somali government official and some media had said the two kidnapped Frenchmen were posing as journalists. Paris has denied that, saying they were on official government business.

Somalia’s security forces are deeply divided and some actively support the insurgents, who are fighting government troops on a daily basis.

Mogadishu is one of the world’s most-dangerous cities and has a history of kidnappings of foreigners, mainly aid workers and journalists. Hostages have normally been released after days or weeks in captivity for substantial ransom payments.

A Somali analyst said the French government may secure the release of its men if it adopts a soft approach and is willing to part with a ransom big enough to keep financing the war.

“The Shabaab are not thinking about killing, they may have other options,” independent analyst Hassan Hundubey said.

“They may demand the release of one of their leaders in Guantanamo or demand a ransom, since they want to run this war indefinitely. His life is more important than a beheading.”

Hundubey said a Somali linked to the Islamists was being held at a US military prison in Guantanamo for working with Al-Qaeda.

The hardline Al-Shabaab has beheaded Somalis in the past for allegedly spying for the government and western nations.

“They killed the Somalis because they were sending a message to other Somalis who might want to cooperate with western security agencies or the government,” Hundubey said.

Ugandan Army says AU force in Somalia needs stronger mandate, more troops

KAMPALA: African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Somalia need a stronger mandate to help bring security to the anarchic Horn of Africa nation, requiring at least triple the troops, the force’s biggest contributor said on Wednesday.

Embattled AU soldiers face near-daily attacks from insurgents in the Somali capital Mogadishu and are largely confined to protecting key areas such as the presidential palace, airport and seaport.

Despite an initial pledge of 8,000 troops to help secure Somalia’s weak government, only 4,300 soldiers – the most from Uganda – have arrived in the sea-side capital.

“The way forward is to change the mandate from peacekeeping to peace enforcement. It would also require a change in the force levels,” Ugandan Army spokesman Felix Kulayigye told Reuters by telephone.

“I think we need between 16,000-20,000 troops.”

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmad’s government also wants a stronger mandate for AU peacekeepers to help his administration fend off Islamist-led rebel attacks in the latest cycle of violence in 18 years of civil conflict in Somalia.

An AU spokesman said on Wednesday that three of the task force’s soldiers were killed over the weekend in Mogadishu. “We have lost three soldiers in mortar shelling on Saturday evening,” Major Barigye Ba-hoku told Reuters.

A two-year Islamist-led insurgency has killed at least 18,000 people and sent hundreds of thousands more from their homes. Rebels control large areas of Mogadishu and the south.

Foreign powers and some of Somalia’s neighbors fear that if Ahmad’s Western-backed government is toppled then Somalia could become a safe haven for foreign militants.

One of Somalia’s militant Islamist groups was holding two French security men hostage on Wednesday after government-linked abductors took them from a Mogadishu hotel earlier this week, police said.

Source: The Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=104291.