MOGADISHU (Halbeeg News) – Somali government has said it has not received any requests from Al-Shabaab regarding peace talks.
Somali President’s National Security Adviser Hussein Sheikh Ali who spoke to VOA said that the country’s deputy defence minister was misquoted.
“We have not received any requests from the group,” Ali said. He added that the Somali government’s position on al-Shabab has not changed.
“Our policy towards talks with Alshabab remains the same,” he wrote in a message via WhatsApp. “We aren’t negotiating with them as a group. However, individuals who wish to leave the group will undergo a thorough process to defect and be eligible for government amnesty formally.”
The remarks come hours after Deputy Defense minister Abdulfatah Kasim Mohamud claimed al-Shabaab have formally approached the government requesting negotiations to end differences.
Meanwhile, Al-Shabaab also denied the existence of any talks with the Somali government, terming the remarks of the deputy minister as “baseless.”
“I can confirm that there aren’t and can be no talks between us,” an al-Shabaab official was quoted by the group’s affiliated website.
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