Somalia’s al-Shabaab Militia Warns Djibouti Against Deployment of Troops

Somalia’s rebel al-Shabaab militia warned neighboring Djibouti against sending troops to the war- torn country on a day it claimed at least 20 pro-government soldiers were killed in an attack in the capital, Mogadishu.
“We have already dragged the bodies of invaders like Ugandans and Burundians in the streets of Mogadishu and in case the Djiboutian troops arrive in our land, they will be dealt with in the same manner we have treated the invaders,” Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, al-Shabaab’s spokesman, told reporters today in Mogadishu.
Djibouti plans to send troops to Somalia later this month or early in June, Voice of America reported on May 14, citing Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf. It didn’t say how many soldiers would be deployed.
Al-Shabaab, which the U.S. accuses of having links to al- Qaeda, has been battling Somalia’s government since 2007 as it seeks to establish an Islamic state. Uganda and Burundi have more than 6,200 soldiers in the country to support the Western- backed administration, which is trying to establish the first functioning government since the ouster of Mohamed Siad Barre, the former dictator, in 1991.
Earlier today, al-Shabaab carried out a mortar attack in Hodan in the south of Mogadishu, killing at least 20 members of the pro-government Ahlu Sunnah Waljamaah militia, an al-Shabaab official said. The official spoke on Radio al-Furqaan, a Mogadishu-based broadcaster, which didn’t identify him.
“At least half a dozen mortars landed at Hodan district and I saw two battle wagons carrying casualties from the soldiers’ side,” Mumin Omar Abukar, a resident of Hodan, said by phone from the area today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Hamsa Omar in Mogadishu via Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.