Bartamaha (Nairobi):- Top officials of Al-Shabaab, the Somali Islamist movement vehemently opposing the Transitional Federal Government, opened a radio station in the central regions of Somalia on Sunday.
Sheikh Abukar Zaila’i alias Ibrahim Al-Afghan, a senior Al-Shabaab official and Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Raghe alias Sheikh Ali Dhrere, the spokesman of the movement, attended the opening ceremony in Galgadud region.
Al-Shabaab has been at loggerheads in Galgadud region with Ahlu Sunna wal-Jamea, a moderate Islamist group allied with the TFG.
The establishment of a powerful FM Radio is hence considered as part and parcel of war of words between the politically opposing sides in Somalia.
The new broadcaster is part of a network of stations that Al-Shabaab strategically installed in parts of the vast territories it controls.
Some of the privately owned broadcasters in Kismayu and Baidoa, respectively 500 km and 240 km south of Mogadishu and Jowhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu, had been confiscated by Al-Shabaab officials. The one installed in Galgadud must be the forth one, all of them known as Al-Andalus media.
Al-Andalus is an Arabic name for Iberian Peninsula, a name given during the long reign of a Muslim Khalipha in the 1st millennium in Southern Europe.
Some people suspect that the powerful FM-Radio that can reach as far as Galkayo town in Puntland, 749 km north of Mogadishu, is the same FM System allegedly looted from the Somaliweyn, an independent media in Mogadishu by Al-Shabaab militants.
The managers of Somaliweyn Radio have repeatedly said that Al-Shabaab had not returned the FM broadcasting system despite pleas. The once popular station in North Mogadishu still remains silent.
Observers forecast that the next Al-Andalus station will be fixed in Marka town, 110 south of Mogadishu.
The TFG refurbished Mogadishu Radio nine months ago and it has become so powerful that radical Islamist groups opposing the government prohibited people in their areas from listening to it.
Meanwhile, heavy clashes between fighters loyal to Al-Shabaab and pro-government forces broke out on Sunday afternoon. Heavy exchange of fire and shelling has caused deaths and injuries. One mortar shell that landed in the government area in the ancient Hamarweyne district hit a Koran Madrasa school, injuring at least 10 children.
The most affected districts include Bondhere and Shibs that are both very close to Villa Somalia, the seat of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed who is out of the country, visiting Egypt.
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Source:-The Citizen.
