Al Shabaab orders aid agencies to leave

Rebel group, Al-Shabaab, has flexed its muscles in the areas it controls by banning 16 international aid agencies.

The militants accused the organisations of ‘‘un-Islamic’’ activities and warned that more would be banned if they did not toe the line.

Among those affected in the co-ordinated action in the south and centre of the war-torn country are six UN agencies.

“Any organisation found to be supporting or actively engaged in activities deemed detrimental to the attainment of an Islamic State, or performing duties other than that which it formally proclaims, will be banned immediately without prior warning,” the rebel group said in a statement.

Witnesses said gunmen stormed the offices of the agencies, seized computers, telephones and other equipment and ordered workers to leave.

“Three armoured vehicles with gunmen surrounded the offices, including the office of Unicef,” a resident in the central city of Baidoa Adulahi Idle, said.

“I saw many militiamen go inside and force the people there to leave and the men took control,” he said.

The rebel group accused the agencies of “lacking complete political detachment and neutrality... thereby intensifying the instability and insecurity gripping the nation as a whole.”

This was an apparent reference to the incursion in Somalia by the Kenya Defence Forces.

Separately, KDF spokesman Emmanuel Chirchir warned of a likely movement of foreign fighters from the region towards the common border as they abandon Al-Shabaab.

Major Chirchir also tweeted that Operation Linda Nchi had destroyed most of the rebel group’s training infrastructure in the South.

But in the areas they control, Al-Shabaab accused the aid agencies of working to “foster secularism, immorality and the degrading values of democracy in an Islamic country.”

The UN has warned that nearly 250,000 people face imminent starvation in the areas controlled by the rebels. The organisations ordered closed were UNHCR, Unicef, World Health Organisation and the UN Population Fund.

Others are the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit.

A regional security source said the raids in south and central Somalia were well planned and coordinated, with gunmen seizing computers, telephones and other equipment from aid workers. No arrests were reported.

“It was a surprise, but something that was clearly planned,” an aid agency official in Somalia said.

Other aid agencies affected include the Norwegian Refugee Council, Danish Refugee Council, Concern, Norwegian Church Aid and the Italian Cooperazione Internazionale.

Imposes draconian rules