MOGADISHU – A notorious Somali warlord allied to the Islamist al-Shabaab and on UN sanction lists has agreed to quit the extremists, the information ministry said at the weekend.
Powerful arms dealer Mohamed Said Atom, who is under UN Security Council sanctions for “kidnapping, piracy and terrorism”, has been a close ally of the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab.
But a government statement on Saturday quoted Atom as saying he had left the Shebab, accusing Islamist chief Ahmed Abdi Godane of working for a “foreign agenda.”
“I would like to declare that as of today I have decided to resolve my religious and political issues through peaceful means and understanding,” Atom said, according to the government.
Atom, as well as Shebab insurgents, have long operated from the rugged Golis mountains in the northern autonomous Somali region of Puntland, that forms the very tip of the Horn of Africa.
His defection will be a blow to the Islamists, who have lost a string of towns to a 22,000-strong force of African Union troops fighting alongside the government…
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