(Reuters) – Somalia’s al Shabaab rebels said on Monday their next target, after capturing the north of the capital, is to seize the presidential palace.

The U.N.-backed administration of President Sheikh Ahmed Sharif had hoped to drive the rebels out of the capital through a major offensive that has been on the cards since last year, but the insurgents have attacked, pressing government positions last week.

“We have ousted the government from the north of Mogadishu… and now our next step is to capture the palace,” Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, al Shabaab’s spokesman, told reporters.

“There is no one between us and the Christians (African Union peacekeepers — AMISOM), the so-called police who used to defend the AMISOM are now nowhere to be seen.”

A spokesman for the peacekeeping force laughed off the insurgent’s statement.

“We wish them success for their dreams,” Barigye Ba-Hoku told Reuters.

“Their actions are illegal and they amount to a coup,” Ba-Hoku added. The government was not immediately available to comment.

Somalia has had no effective central government for 19 years and Western efforts to install one to steer the country back to stability have been greatly undermined by the Shabaab insurgency and another smaller group, Hizbul Islam.

The fighting has killed at least 21,000 people since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes, triggering one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies.

(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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