By Hamsa Omar
Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) — The rebel Somali Islamist group al- Shabaab ordered the United Nation’s demining agency to stop operating in regions under its control, accusing the organization of encouraging people to fight them.
Mine Action is paying the salaries of police officers working for the government and bribing village elders to fight against al-Shabaab, the group said in a statement today.
Most of southern and central Somalia is controlled by al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam, following a two-year battle with the country’s Western-backed government.
To contact the reporter on this story: Hamsa Omar in Mogadishu via Johannesburg at
