Somalia: Govt bans Al Shabaab 'propaganda' contents

In the fight against terrorism in general and the Al-Shabab extremist group in particular, the Somali government has decided to enforce a new measure.

On Saturday (Oct.7), the deputy minister of information announced the government banned what it calls "the dissemination of extremism ideology messages both from official media houses and on social media".

"I want to inform the Somali media and all Somali people in general that we’ll regard all al Shabaab related propaganda coverage including their terrorist acts and their ideology as punishable crimes, Abdirahman Yusuf said.

"Thus, implementing its decision, the government started cyber operations fighting against terrorist accounts on social media, so far, we have suspended more than 40 accounts on Facebook and Twitter", the deputy minister added.

Speaking the AFP news agency, Yusuf insisted the decision would not affect normal news coverage about al-Shabab by journalists in Somalia.

The armed forces, backed by local militias and international allies, have waged a campaign against the al-Qaeda-linked group which still controls swaths of the countryside.

Earlier this week, the jihadists carried out a deadly triple bombing.

The ministry of information, in a statement, urged Somalis to report accounts linked to terrorist activities.