Friday July 29, 2022
Jigjiga (HOL) - President of the Somali regional state of Ethiopia, Mustafe Cagjar, returned to Jigjiga on Thursday after spending days in the districts of Afdheer and Shabelle regions, where fierce clashes between Liyu police and Al Shabaab militants took place following a terrorist attack by the Somali-based militant insurgency group.
President Cagjar said in a press conference that the militants who attacked the region were killed, wounded, and captured alive after he ordered the Liyu police force to engage with the Al Shabab fighters.
"There are enemies inside us who entered our land, so we must be more vigilant.” He added that residents should not give Al Shabaab's ideology a foothold in the region.
During his visit to Feerfeer district, the President said that a terror-free zone would be established outside the Somali region, which caused much discussion in the community.
"Suppose they are carrying out the attack, and there is no one to prevent them. In that case, someone is coming from your neighbourhood and throwing stones at your home daily. The house owner does not stop him, and that does not work. He has to do something," he said in response to his earlier statement. “Therefore, our Somali brothers have to take action.”"We have no dispute with anyone about land. Ten kilometres from our border, Al Shabaab is gathering its militants to attack us without anyone to prevent them. This doesn't seem right. If something proactive is done about it, there is no reason for us to go anywhere else," the President concluded.
Authorities in the Ethiopian region of Somali on Saturday said they had "destroyed" fighters from the Al-Shabab Islamist group in a rare militant incursion from neighbouring Somalia.
In a statement, Somali's state communication bureau said an armed Al-Shabab group that crossed into the southeastern region on Tuesday "was surrounded in a sub-locality called Hulhul and destroyed."