Saturday February 27, 2021
MOGADISHU (HOL) - The UN Security Council has put three Al-Shabaab militants among them its deputy on its sanctions list.
A resolution passed by the Council Friday listed Abukar Ali Aden, the group’s deputy leader alongside the founder of Jaysh Ayman which was responsible for the Manda Bay attack in Kenya which killed at least three American soldiers and contractors last year.
Also on the list is Mahad Karate who had been touted to succeed the group’s leader Ali Godane who was felled by a U.S air strike in 2014.Karate, a key figure within the Al-Shabaab intelligence wing, the Amniyat has been pitied in a power struggle with Aden.
The strife, according to the Somali intelligence agency NISA arose last year after the group leader Ahmed Diriye Ubaidah handed over power temporarily to Aden following a frail health.
The listing of the three by the Security Council adds to other sanctions imposed by the US. The State Department designated Karate and Aden global terrorists in 2018.
A resolution moved by Kenya to designate Al-Shabaab a terrorist organisation was shot down by the Security Council last year on accounts that such a move would jeorpadise humanitarian efforts since parts of the country controlled by the group would be sealed off from aid support and tougher restrictions imposed on aid organisations operating in the country.