{"id":29670,"date":"2016-10-24T01:38:21","date_gmt":"2016-10-24T01:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/al-shabab-seizes-somali-town-after-peacekeeper\/"},"modified":"2016-10-24T01:37:54","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T01:37:54","slug":"al-shabab-seizes-somali-town-after-peacekeeper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/al-shabab-seizes-somali-town-after-peacekeeper\/","title":{"rendered":"Al-Shabab seizes Somali town after peacekeeper pullout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{African Union forces abandon Halgan town in the Hiran region, allowing al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters to enter soon after.}<\/p>\n<p>Fighters from al-Shabab have seized control of yet another town in central Somalia after it was abandoned by African Union peacekeepers, according to a spokesman for the group and a local official.<\/p>\n<p>It was the third time this month that the al-Qaeda-affiliated group moved into a town in the region after the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, an Ethiopian contingent abandoned the town of Halgan in the Hiran region, allowing the group&#8217;s fighters to enter soon after, Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabab&#8217;s spokesman on military operations said.<\/p>\n<p>A military offensive launched in 2014 by African Union forces and the Somali army pushed out al-Shabbab of major strategic centres, but the fighters, who once held sway over much of the Horn of Africa country, still control some settlements and rural areas.<\/p>\n<p>Mapping al-Shabab attacks in Somalia<\/p>\n<p>The fall of Halgan was confirmed by Dahir Amin Jesow, a member of parliament from the region, who said residents are being subjected to reprisals at the hands of the fighters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Each day, civilians are being beheaded over suspicion that they are government supporters,&#8221; he told the Reuters news agency. &#8220;We do not have a government that is effective enough to protect our civilians.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The reason for the peacekeepers&#8217; withdrawal was not clear. Officials in Ethiopia were not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Somalia has been embroiled in conflict and lawlessness since the early 1990s following the toppling of military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.<\/p>\n<p>Propped up by the African Union-mandated force known as AMISOM, Somalia&#8217;s military and central government have strengthened their grip on the country but a relentless campaign of violence by al-Shabab persists.<\/p>\n<p>The group regularly attacks AMISOM&#8217;s troops, which is made up of about 22,000 soldiers and police from African nations supporting Somalia&#8217;s government and army.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Shabab aims to drive out the peacekeepers, topple Somalia&#8217;s Western-backed government and impose a strict version of Islam.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-15893 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/6eb555bfe90c4368beafaecad0cf58a4_18.jpg\" alt=\"Al-Shabaab aims to drive out the peacekeepers, topple Somalia&#039;s Western-backed government \" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{African Union forces abandon Halgan town in the Hiran region, allowing al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters to enter soon after.} Fighters from al-Shabab have seized control of yet another town in central Somalia after it was abandoned by African Union peacekeepers, according to a spokesman for the group and a local official. It was the third time this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-29670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29670"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=29670"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=29670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}