Mogadishu: A senior Al Shabab commander and about 20 of his followers have pledged allegiance to Daesh, the first move of its kind to emerge in the Somali militant group.
There was no immediate reaction from Al Shabab’s overall leadership, which aligned itself in 2012 to Al Qaida, a group that has declared Daesh’s leader illegitimate.
Experts have been watching to see if the rise of Daesh in Syria, Iraq and other battlefields, would draw al Shabab’s public support, but said the impact of any such alliance would be largely symbolic given geographical distance would hinder an exchange of material supplies.
“We, the mujahideen of Somalia, declare allegiance to the caliph as Ebrahim Ibn Awad Ibn Ebrahim Al Awad Al Qurashi,” Abdiqadir Mumin, an al Shabab commander in the Puntland region of Somalia, said in an audio tape published on YouTube.
Nigerian militants Boko Haram also pledged allegiance to Daesh this year, a move seen as highlighting a desire by African jihadists to link up with others in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Daesh has accepted pledges of allegiance from groups in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Africa.
A follower of al Shabab’s Mumin confirmed the veracity of the recording declaring allegiance to Al Qurashi, better known as Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, the leader of Daesh and self-proclaimed caliph of the Muslim world.
“Senior leader Abdiqadir Mumin and his 20 fighters, including me, joined [Daesh],” one of Mumin’s supporters said by telephone.
Mumin had been based in the Galgala hills in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, said the supporter, who asked not to be identified. The 20 came from a group of 300 in Galgala, he said, adding that his group had now moved to another area.
