Al-Shabaab’s education leader surrenders to government in Mogadishu

A senior member of the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab has defected to the government, officials have said.

 Ibrahim Adan Ibrahim, a leading figure in the militant group’s Education department surrendered to Somali Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) in Mogadishu before he was presented to the media by the officials.

He has been reportedly operating from Bay and Bakool region before he crossed to government side.

Somali Minister for Internal Security, Abdirisak Omar Mohamed said  the government facilitated his defection and welcomed Ibrahim who surrendered to the intelligence agency.

Ibrahim who briefly spoke to the media in Mogadishu said that he defected to Somali government after he saw the group’s brutal attacks against Somali people which had nothing to with Islam.

” I hereby denounce the group’s ideology and I am no longer a member of Al-Shabaab” he said, adding ” I want to live a peaceful life which is clear from violence and extremism.”

The number of Al-Shabaab members defecting to the government including senior officials have continued to increase while the group has lost major strategic controls it once controlled.

In 2014 former Al-Shabaab intelligence commander Zakariye Hersi surrendered to government forces claiming he had left the group a year before. He had a $3 million bounty on his head from the US government