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Has Qatar groomed a terrorist to be a Somali district's president?
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Abu Mansoor Mukhtar Robow, a deputy leader and former front man of the Somali bad boy group al-Shabaab...  the personification of Somali state failure..., became the first official candidate for the presidential elections in Somalia's Baidoa, that are set to take place Nov. 17. Al-Shabaab, a political Islamist group in Somalia with ideological ties to al-Qaeda, is classified internationally as a terrorist group by countries including the United States. The group carried out multiple suicide kabooms that targeted diplomatic headquarters of foreign countries and left dozens of civilians dead. In 2012, the US administration allocated $5 million to any informant who discloses information that could help lead to Robow’s arrest. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... in July 2017, the State Department issued a decision to cancel the reward after they confirmed that he was secretly negotiating with the Somali government. According to local Somali news reports, the committee overseeing the presidential elections confirmed that Robow was the first candidate to announce he was running for a presidential campaign in southwestern Somalia. In august 2017, the Somali army formally declared Robow had left al-Shabaab and had joined the ranks of the government. A picture of Robow with the British Ambassador to Somalia David Concar circulated on social media that showed the ambassador with a suspicious look on his face as he talked to the former terrorist. Posted by: Fred 2018-11-17 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=527797 |