Somalia wants Turkish support to combat Al-Shabaab ideology

Somalia has asked Turkey for support in fighting Al-Shabaab’s ideology in the communications domain, a senior Somali official told Turkish state media.

Daud Aweis, the minister for information, culture and tourism, said Somalia is battling the terrorist group in various fronts.

“We have the military front in which we are making some progress and then there is a financial front that we are trying to regulate,” Aweis told Anadolu Agency in Istanbul, where he attended the 12th Conference of the Information Ministers of the OIC.

He added, “The last front which is very crucial is about the ideology and that is supposed to be (spread) by using communication means.”

The minister said that he held talks with Turkey’s Communications Director Fahrettin Altun on bilateral cooperation in the communications domain.

Aweis warned that a number of media outlets run by Al-Shabaab and other terrorist groups have been “disseminating information or reports” that sow conflict in the society and “brainwash the people, especially youth.”

“We are trying to regulate how reports are disseminated by closing some of the media outlets owned by al-Shabaab – like social media accounts owned by terrorist groups that we identified and closed some of them,” said Aweis.

Noting Turkey’s experience in tackling misinformation by terrorist groups, the minister said Mogadishu and Ankara can cooperate “to make sure that the (terror) menace is completely eliminated from Somalia.”

Since his election in May, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has stated in various platforms that his administration seeks to comprehensively fight Al-Shabaab beyond military means to include the ideological (information) and financial domains.