Friday March 31, 2023
Mogadishu (HOL) - The Somali government has announced that it has successfully blocked the money that al-Shabaab receives from goods imported by Somali citizens at ports and airports, reducing the group's income by at least half.
During a press conference in Mogadishu on Thursday, Deputy Minister of Information Abdirahman Yusuf Adala revealed that the government had seized 15 vehicles used by al-Shabaab to collect funds and had killed 20 leaders in charge of managing funds.
Adala added that the government had also destroyed al-Shabaab's bases, where they used to collect bribe money from people, and called on people in business and other individuals to ask for bribe money on the outskirts of Mogadishu.
"The extortion that al-Shabaab used to get money from Somali citizens' goods at ports and airports, as well as the extortion that the group used to take the property to be traded, has been stopped," said Deputy Minister of Information Abdirahman Adala.
He further noted that the government has been successful in crippling the group's financial system since the start of the economic war against the group. Additionally, the minister underlined that the Somali government had blocked al-Shabaab's financial accounts through remittance companies and national banks.
However, despite Somalia's crackdown on al-Shabaab, the terrorist group has been able to move funds through local and Islamic banks, as noted in a November report by UN experts.
The report indicates that the group seeks more funds to pay its fighters, which currently cost the insurgent group about $1 million monthly in salaries.
The UN experts' report also states that al-Shabaab notified households of annual charges between $100 and $300 for iron sheets, stone, and multi-story houses in May. The group also extorts owners of buildings and homes being constructed around Mogadishu at about 25 percent of the value of the development.
For over a decade, the al-Qaeda-affiliated militant al-Shabaab group has waged a deadly war against Somalia's internationally supported government.