Somali gov’t launches national de-radicalization symposium

After years of conflict and instability, Somalia is still burdened by attacks and threats of violent extremism carried out by terrorist groups. Somalia’s most infamous one, Al-Shabaab, continues to control and influence territory and communities in large parts of the country, particularly in the south and central parts, despite territory gains made in recent years by the Somali National Army and the African Union Mission in Somalia.

The federal government of Somalia has launched a de-radicalization program in Mogadishu, in an effort to thwart recruitment drives by terrorist groups.

The ministry of interior of the federal government of Somalia has launched a de-radicalization symposium in an effort to thwart recruitment drives by terrorist groups in the Country.

The one-day symposium held in Mogadishu was meant to analyze already existing measures to prevent and counter-recruitment and radicalization at the ministry of interior of the federal government of Somalia.

The meeting was also used as a venue to equip district and division level security officers on the reintegration, rehabilitation and deradicalization of former fighters into the community.

The director of the national rehabilitation and deradicalization program Mohammed Ali Hussein says the symposium specifically addressed the government’s plan to thwart recruitment drives by terrorist groups in the Country.

Somalia’s president Mohammed Abdullahi Farmahi had in 2017 offered al-Shabab militants and other terror groups in the country an amnesty amid a declaration of war on the group.

The president at the time promised that Fighters who gave themselves up would receive training, employment and education.

The deputy minister of interior of the federal government of Somalia has Abdinassir Said has urged sympathizers and fighters of militant groups in the country to make use of the amnesty by the president and the deradicalization policies of the government.

Al-Shabaab and most recently ISIS has waged a near-decade war in Somalia, killing thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands of others.

Al-Shabab – which is allied to al-Qaeda – is battling Somalia’s UN-backed government and has also carried out attacks in neighboring Kenya.