Al Qaeda Tries a New Tactic in Somalia: Philanthropy
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: October 16, 2011
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NAIROBI, Kenya — Al Qaeda is not known for its philanthropic activities, but this weekend in Somalia the terrorist group appears to have branched into a new business: distributing humanitarian aid.
In a surreal scene, a man with a scarf twisted over his face stood in the middle of a camp full of starving people and announced that he had come to Somalia on behalf of Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s leader, and that Al Qaeda was eager to help famine victims.
“Our beloved brothers and sisters in Somalia, we are following your situation on a daily basis,” said the man, identified as Abu Abdulla Almuhajir.
According to witnesses and photographs from the event, he was surrounded by masked gunmen wearing clean, white vests like aid workers. Mr. Almuhajir presided over mounds of donated grain, in sacks marked “Al Qaeda campaign on behalf of Martyr Bin Laden. Charity relief for those affected by the drought.”
Stranger still, Mr. Almuhajir’s skin was white (his plaid scarf popped open in a few places) and he spoke perfect English, with an American accent. He said that “brothers in Al Qaeda” had brought grain, powdered milk and dates for the famine victims and that Mr. Zawahri had sent him to Somalia with a message of greetings and sympathy.
“Though we are separated by thousands of kilometers, you are consistently in our thoughts and prayers,” he told the Somalis gathered around him on Friday, and witnesses said a similar scene unfolded on Saturday.
Somalia has lurched from crisis to crisis since the central government imploded in 1991, and the country is once again on the ropes. A famine is sweeping the southern regions, and the United Nations says that tens of thousands of people have died across the country and that as many as 750,000 could starve to death in the coming months.
The hardest-hit areas are mostly controlled by the ruthless militants called the Shababwho have pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and banned music, soccer, bras and even Western aid groups at a time of drought and hunger. Somalia’s weak transitional government is marooned in the bullet-riddled capital, Mogadishu, and ringed by the Shabab on almost all sides.
The Shabab-run camp that Mr. Almuhajir visited is on Mogadishu’s outskirts, and it is where the Shabab have been essentially imprisoning thousands of starving people. Witnesses said Shabab fighters had plucked desperate people off buses and taken them to their camp at gunpoint, and recent pictures sneaked out by Somali aid workers revealed skeletal children, their skin cracking off and their entire rib cages visible.
Mr. Almuhajir toured the camp with leaders of the Shabab, praising them for “operating under extremely difficult circumstances.”
The episode raises the question: what exactly is Al Qaeda these days? Is it a philosophy that anyone can claim to represent? Or is it a centrally organized group that sends emissaries on public relations missions to places like Somalia? Is the mysterious Mr. Almuhajir really a representative or just a Qaeda pretender?
There is no doubt that Al Qaeda has been active in Somalia, though some of its biggest agents who were hiding out there, like Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, have recently been killed. And some Americans have indeed gone to fight for the Shabab, including Omar Hammami, who grew up in Alabama going to Bible camp. Somali officials insist that Al Qaeda is working hand in hand with the Shabab and that the food handout was simply propaganda.
“They want to take advantage of the hungry people, in order to get child recruits,” said Abdulkadir Hussein Mohamed, the transitional government’s information minister.
Several Mogadishu residents who were interviewed on Sunday also seemed disgusted.
Abdullahi Yasin, a university student, called the food distribution a “mockery.” He said it was the Shabab’s Qaeda-inspired policies of banning Western aid groups and preying upon the population that caused the famine in the first place.
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: October 16, 2011
================================================
NAIROBI, Kenya — Al Qaeda is not known for its philanthropic activities, but this weekend in Somalia the terrorist group appears to have branched into a new business: distributing humanitarian aid.
In a surreal scene, a man with a scarf twisted over his face stood in the middle of a camp full of starving people and announced that he had come to Somalia on behalf of Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s leader, and that Al Qaeda was eager to help famine victims.
“Our beloved brothers and sisters in Somalia, we are following your situation on a daily basis,” said the man, identified as Abu Abdulla Almuhajir.
According to witnesses and photographs from the event, he was surrounded by masked gunmen wearing clean, white vests like aid workers. Mr. Almuhajir presided over mounds of donated grain, in sacks marked “Al Qaeda campaign on behalf of Martyr Bin Laden. Charity relief for those affected by the drought.”
Stranger still, Mr. Almuhajir’s skin was white (his plaid scarf popped open in a few places) and he spoke perfect English, with an American accent. He said that “brothers in Al Qaeda” had brought grain, powdered milk and dates for the famine victims and that Mr. Zawahri had sent him to Somalia with a message of greetings and sympathy.
“Though we are separated by thousands of kilometers, you are consistently in our thoughts and prayers,” he told the Somalis gathered around him on Friday, and witnesses said a similar scene unfolded on Saturday.
Somalia has lurched from crisis to crisis since the central government imploded in 1991, and the country is once again on the ropes. A famine is sweeping the southern regions, and the United Nations says that tens of thousands of people have died across the country and that as many as 750,000 could starve to death in the coming months.
The hardest-hit areas are mostly controlled by the ruthless militants called the Shababwho have pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and banned music, soccer, bras and even Western aid groups at a time of drought and hunger. Somalia’s weak transitional government is marooned in the bullet-riddled capital, Mogadishu, and ringed by the Shabab on almost all sides.
The Shabab-run camp that Mr. Almuhajir visited is on Mogadishu’s outskirts, and it is where the Shabab have been essentially imprisoning thousands of starving people. Witnesses said Shabab fighters had plucked desperate people off buses and taken them to their camp at gunpoint, and recent pictures sneaked out by Somali aid workers revealed skeletal children, their skin cracking off and their entire rib cages visible.
Mr. Almuhajir toured the camp with leaders of the Shabab, praising them for “operating under extremely difficult circumstances.”
The episode raises the question: what exactly is Al Qaeda these days? Is it a philosophy that anyone can claim to represent? Or is it a centrally organized group that sends emissaries on public relations missions to places like Somalia? Is the mysterious Mr. Almuhajir really a representative or just a Qaeda pretender?
There is no doubt that Al Qaeda has been active in Somalia, though some of its biggest agents who were hiding out there, like Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, have recently been killed. And some Americans have indeed gone to fight for the Shabab, including Omar Hammami, who grew up in Alabama going to Bible camp. Somali officials insist that Al Qaeda is working hand in hand with the Shabab and that the food handout was simply propaganda.
“They want to take advantage of the hungry people, in order to get child recruits,” said Abdulkadir Hussein Mohamed, the transitional government’s information minister.
Several Mogadishu residents who were interviewed on Sunday also seemed disgusted.
Abdullahi Yasin, a university student, called the food distribution a “mockery.” He said it was the Shabab’s Qaeda-inspired policies of banning Western aid groups and preying upon the population that caused the famine in the first place.
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.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/world/africa/al-qaeda-brings-food-aid-to-somalia-famine-victims.html
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