Jan. 2 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of Somalia, Hasan Sheikh Mohamud, has affirmed that 2023 will be the year “of liberation”, amid the increase in offensives against the terrorist group Al Shabaab, especially in areas of the center of the African country.
“The vision is that 2023 is the year in which the country is free and in which the Government focuses on service and action,” he said, before adding that the objective is to assume security tasks in December 2024, when the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) will withdraw.
Likewise, he has highlighted the advances on the ground in the framework of the offensives unleashed in the last seven months and has spoken of “a great victory” on the road to “the liberation of the country” from Al Shabaab, as reported by the Somali agency. from SONNA news.
During the day on Sunday, the Somali Army managed to take the Masagawa district, in the Galgudud region (center), after an operation against Al Shabaab backed by local militiamen. The town had been in the hands of the terrorist group for 15 years.
Sheikh Mohamud himself said at the beginning of December that Al Shabaab “is history” and asked the population to “support the liberation operations.” “They won’t come back. They can’t come back. They are finished and, God willing, they will stay that way. Those who say al Shabaab will come back are just trying to scare us,” he said.
The Somali president promised in mid-November to continue the “total war” against the group, which maintains ties to the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, and stressed that “going back and defeat are not an option.”
Somalia has increased offensives against Al Shabaab in recent months with the support of clans and local militias as part of a series of decisions taken by the president, who promised upon taking office to put the fight against terrorism at the center of his efforts to stabilize the country. african country.
