Al-Shabaab campaigns against Covid-19 prevention measures in Somalia

Ahmed Adel

The terrorist al-Shabaab movement works hard to destabilize Somalia and highlight the weaknesses of the security establishment in the east African country.

Somalia continues, meanwhile, to incur political losses amid tensions among its political forces because of the failure of its outgoing president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo to ease the holding of elections after the end of his presidential term last month.

Al-Shabaab tries to make use of the Covid-19 pandemic in increasing its gains, even at the cost of the Somali people.

It has recently warned people in the areas it controls across Somalia against abiding by Covid-19 prevention measures declared earlier by the Somali government.

Disease

The movement threatened to take punitive measures against locals who show abidance by the preventive measures declared by the authorities.

It asked these locals not to wear facemasks, noting that Covid-19 is a god-sent plague that requires repentance and prayer, not facemasks.

One of the people living in an area controlled by al-Shabaab said movement terrorists had stopped him and asked him to remove his facemask.

The terrorists also asked the man not to ever wear the facemask again, a Somali news site quoted the man as saying.

Rivalry

The administration of the southeastern Somali region of Banaadir had earlier asked the residents of the region to abide by Covid-19 preventive measures, including the wearing of facemasks.

It said those failing to abide by the measures would be fined $5.

A Somali news site said, meanwhile, that al-Shabaab wants the public to scrap the preventive measures in order to prove the failure of local authorities in containing the disease.