Somalia Appoints Al-Qaeda Offshoot’s Former Deputy Chief to be Religion Minister

Somali Prime Minster Hamza Abdi barre appointed MukhtarRobow — a former deputy head of al-Shabaab — to be Somalia’s new Religion Minister on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

“After extensive deliberation and consultation with the president, I have appointed cabinet ministers who are educated and experienced and will perform their duties,” Prime Minister Barre stated August 2, before naming several cabinet members, including Robow. I ask that the parliament approve the cabinet .”

The Somali parliament approved Barre as prime minister of Somalia on June 25 after he was nominated for the post by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Robow (also known as Abu Mansour) was in Somalia’s presidential Palace on August 2, as Barre made his announcement to the media about new Cabinet members. Somali security authorities had released Robow just 24 hours earlier from detention at the headquarters of Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), Voice of America (VOA) reported on Tuesday.

Somali authorities have held Robow under house arrest or detention for several years. A joint unit of Somali and African Union security forces arrested Robow in Baidoa in December 2018 as he campaigned for a regional presidency in Somalia’s South West State. Somalia’s previous government ordered Robow’s detention in late 2018 to keep him from assuming power in the region, where he enjoys substantial public support as a native resident.

Robow’s December 2018 arrest provoked people in Baidoa to violently protest against the measure. The Somali security forces responded with force to the protests. At least 15 people died during the clashes, “including soldiers and civilians,” the BBC reported at the time.

VOA reminded Robow of his dual service to Somalia’s government as well as al-Shabaab’s on August 2nd, writing:

Robow rose to prominence as deputy defense chief of Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union in 2006, when the group temporarily seized control of most of southcentral Somalia, defeating a coalition of U.S.-backed warlords.

Robow was later appointed as al-Shabab’s official spokesperson, and then as its deputy leader. In 2008, the U.S. designated al-Shabab a terrorist organization. In 2012, the U.S. offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Robow’s capture, although that offer was withdrawn in June 2017.

“Robow was trained in Afghanistan by al-Qaida before the establishment of al Shabab,” VOA reports.

Al-Shabaab formed in Somalia around 2006 as a direct offshoot of al-Qaeda, which is an international jihadist terror organization that was established around 1988. Al-Qaeda made headlines on August 1 when Washington announced that the group’s latest leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed by a U.S. military airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 30.

VOA, a U.S. government-funded broadcaster, further revealed on Tuesday that an interview it conducted with Robow in October 2021 led to his latest detention by Somalia’s NISA, which ended on August 2.

“In August 2019 he was moved from prison to house arrest,” VOA noted, referring to Robow’s detention stemming from his December 2018 arrest in Baidoa.

“He returned to NISA Headquarters after giving an interview with VOA Somalia in October last year,” reported the broadcaster.

During the October 2021 interview in question, Robow alleged to VOA that he had been “abducted” by Somalian government forces, who, he claimed, were detaining him for political purposes because they did not want him to run for any government posts. Robow publicly denounced al-Shabaab in 2013 before first attempting to run for public office in Somalia in 2017.

Somalia’s newly-elected president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, assumed office in May. His campaign promises were to end al-Shabaab’s Islamic insurgency inside Somalia. Al-Shabaab appears to have grown in strength over the last three years. During which Mohamud, ex-Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, was “consumed [and] took very little action against al Shabaab,” Reuters recalled Tuesday.

” This allowed insurgents build substantial cash reserves and launch attacks across large swathes of Somalia. The news agency reported that last week, scores of al Shabaab militants were killed along with Ethiopian security force personnel in clashes at the border.

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