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Al Shabaab bans the use of plastic bags in areas under its control

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The group also banned logging in the region.

By: Abdirahman Khalif

KISMAYO—Al-Shabab has banned single-use of plastic bags in the areas it controls in central  Somalia, according to media outlets affiliated with the group.

According to the pro- Al Shabab Somali Memo website, the group has also banned logging of indigenous tress with immediate effect.

The rag tag militants governor for southern Somalia’s Shabelle regions,  Mohamed Abu Abdalla,  said plastic “poses a serious threat to the well-being of both humans and animals”.

The group however  did not say how it would implement the ban.

Many of Al-Shabaab’s top commanders from the group’s more internationalist, hardline faction have been killed.

They include Ahmed Godane, its leader, killed in September 2014, and Abdi Nur Mahdi, its external intelligence chief, killed in February this year. A month later, Adnan Garar, suspected of masterminding the Westgate attack, died in a rain of Hellfire missiles.

Security analysts suggest al-Shabaab is coming towards the end of a transition from a unified Somali Islamist army, to one split between a nationalist militia with domestic ambitions, and the internationalist hardliners.

The group began as the armed wing[17] of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which later splintered into several smaller factions after its defeat in 2006 by Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG)

Al-Shabab advocates the Saudi-inspired Wahhabi version of Islam, while most Somalis are Sufis.

It has imposed a strict version of Sharia in areas under its control, including stoning to death women accused of adultery and amputating the hands of thieves.

 

 

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