Mogadishu 24.03.2014 (Puntlandi) – In a conference with the media Lt. General Silas Ntigurirwa the commander of the AMISOM forces confirmed that Al-Shabaab members were steadily pouring in into the Somali capital Mogadishu to carry intensify the current waves of attacks and explosions.
Although such statements have been reverberated by Somali officials in the past weeks, it’s the first time that an AMISOM official confirms such claims.“Al-Shabaab are trying to infiltrate into Mogadishu and we are ready to defeat them” said Lt. General Ntigurirwa while addressing the media in the heavily fortified AMISOM base situated in the Halane district of Mogadishu.
Regardless of admitting that the AMISOM forces were ready to defeat Al-Shabaab and eradicate them, the commander-in-chief reiterated their need for the Somali people to stand by their side and aid them in their battle against the Islamist group.
“I call upon the Somali people in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country to inform AMISOM of any information about the infiltrating Al-Shabaab terrorists” the commander-in-chief added in his speech.Lt. General Ntigurirwa however isn’t the only one to reach out to the Somali public, as the Al-Shabaab movement have been doing the same thing in the past few weeks and continue to do so, and it seems that both are tied in a competition for the battle of hearts & minds of the Somali public.
The commander’s address comes weeks or rather months after Al-Shabaab had been intensifying their attacks in a manner unseen prior in Mogadishu, with explosions on the rise and nightly attacks turning into daily attacks.It seems that with this recent regained foothold in Mogadishu that Al-Shabaab are planning to fight a guerrilla war in the city as opposed to their conventional methods before their previous withdrawal from Mogadishu, while keeping hidden bases within the city.