Shadowy centre helping former Shaboobs quit
Wheels within wheels. You wonder just how effective this is going to be but it's good to see some effort. | In a small, heavily guarded compound on the bullet-riddled outskirts of Baidoa, a secretive team is working to undermine Somalia's Islamist militant group, al-Shabab, from the inside.
"We can't just solve this militarily," said Aden Mohamed Hussein, ushering me past the soldiers at the gate. "So far so good... We hope for a domino effect."
Mr Hussein runs a new "disengagement" programme for surrendering al-Shabab members at the camp here in Baidoa, an hour's helicopter ride northwest of the capital Mogadishu, towards the Ethiopian border. Al-Shabab no longer controls the town or, we're assured, the surrounding countryside. But attacks are still frequent and our time inside the compound is strictly limited.
Posted by: Steve White 2015-05-26 |