MOGADISHU —
Somalia’s government announced Saturday a
crackdown on media outlets that publish what it deems propaganda for the
Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab and warned that offenders would be punished.
اضافة اعلان
The move comes as Somalia’s armed forces, backed by local
militias and international allies, wage an aggressive counterinsurgency
campaign against the Al-Qaeda affiliate.
“I want to inform the Somali media and all Somali people in
general that we will regard all Al-Shabaab related propaganda coverage
including their terrorist acts and their ideology as punishable crimes,” Deputy
Information Minister Abdirahman Yusuf said.
“The Somali government is totally banning all kinds of
coverage relating to the terrorist ideology and acts of intimidation by (
Al Shabaab),” he told reporters.
Yusuf said the government has also launched cyber operations
against “terrorist accounts” on social media and had suspended more than 40 on
Facebook and Twitter.
Somalia’s recently elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
has vowed an all-out war on the terrorists after a string of deadly attacks,
including a 30-hour hotel siege in the capital Mogadishu in August that killed
21 people.
Fighters from the group were ousted from Mogadishu in 2011
but they continue to strike military, government and civilian targets, often
with deadly consequences.
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