DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Somalia’s president says al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are parts of the same “evil force” that needs to be confronted.
In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud warned that “ideologies have no citizenship and no borders. They move around the world wherever they can sneak in.”
He says al-Qaida and the IS group “are the same people, they’re just rebranding.” Members of the al-Qaida-linked militant group Al-Shabab in Somalia have splintered off and pledged support to the Islamic State group, which holds portions of Iraq and Syria in its self-declared “caliphate.”
Somalia faces regular Al-Shabab attacks even after driving them from the capital, Mogadishu, in 2011.
Mohamud gave the interview while visiting Dubai for a conference on African business opportunities.
Associated Press
Tuesday, November 17, 2015