{"id":1974,"date":"2009-09-10T08:24:41","date_gmt":"2009-09-10T13:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/?p=1974"},"modified":"2016-05-12T08:24:58","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T13:24:58","slug":"islamists-warn-france-against-military-role-in-somalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/?p=1974","title":{"rendered":"Islamists Warn France against Military Role in Somalia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew McGregor<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 10, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

With al-Shabaab extremists threatening to try a captured French security advisor in Somalia under their version of Islamic law, the radical Islamist movement appears ready to provoke a French military intervention. The man is one of two Direction G\u00e9n\u00e9rale de la S\u00e9curit\u00e9 Ext\u00e9rieure (DGSE) agents abducted in a July 14 raid on a Mogadishu hotel (see Terrorism Monitor, July 30). The other agent claims to have escaped his captors on August 26.
\n\"France<\/a><\/p>\n

DGSE Agent Marc Aubri\u00e8re after His Escape<\/em> (NYT)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shaykh Muhammad Ibrahim Bilal, chairman of the Islamic Council of Amal (Hope), a former leading member of the ICU and al-Shabaab, condemned France\u2019s military and security support for Somalia\u2019s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) on August 29, adding that any other French officials coming to Somalia will be kidnapped (Daily Nation<\/em> [Kampala], August 31). On August 28, an al-Shabaab official announced that the remaining French hostage would be sentenced for spying under Islamic law.\u00a0 Two days later Shaykh Bilal told Iranian TV that al-Shabaab was ready to execute their prisoner (Press TV, August 30).<\/p>\n

The agent who escaped, identified as Marc Aubri\u00e8re (probably not his real name), provided a dramatic but highly improbable account of navigating his way by the stars to Mogadishu\u2019s Presidential Palace after escaping his Hizb al-Islam captors and evading armed gunmen shooting at him for five hours in Shabaab-controlled neighborhoods (Shabelle Media Network, August 26; Somaliland Times, August 29). More likely are reports circulating in Mogadishu that Aubri\u00e8re was released after the French government agreed to a ransom. The second DGSE agent is being held by al-Shabaab, which has assured reporters that the man is heavily guarded and unlikely to escape (AFP, August 28).<\/p>\n

A senior al-Shabaab official described the agent\u2019s tale as absurd and accused the movement\u2019s Hizb al-Islam allies of accepting money for the agent\u2019s release. \u201cEven if he escaped, how was it possible for him to walk all the way to the presidential palace without being noticed by the mujahideen?” (Hillaac, August 26). Al-Shabaab may feel it necessary to deal harshly with the French prisoner to preserve its image in light of their Islamist ally\u2019s alleged perfidy in releasing their prisoner in exchange for a ransom (as is widely believed in Mogadishu).<\/p>\n

\"France<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

5e R\u00e9giment Interarmes d’Outre-Mer Training in Djibouti <\/em><\/strong>(Minist\u00e9re de la D\u00e9fense)<\/p>\n

150 of an expected 500 TFG soldiers are now in Djibouti receiving military training from the 5e R\u00e9giment Interarmes d’Outre-Mer (5e RIAOM), a mixed-arms Marine regiment permanently stationed in Africa. There are reports that some of the TFG recruits were returned to Somalia for being too young (Lib\u00e9ration<\/em>, August 28). The government of Djibouti has also announced its readiness to send an estimated 500 soldiers with French assistance to Somalia to join the badly undermanned African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) peacekeeping force (Garowe Online, September 2).<\/p>\n

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has indicated France will not be deterred by hostage-takings. \u201cWe will mobilize to support Africa faced with the growing threat from al-Qaeda, whether in the Sahel or in Somalia\u2026 France will not let al-Qaeda set up a sanctuary on our doorstep in Africa. That message, too, must be clearly heard\u201d (AFP, August 27).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article first appeared in the September 10, 2009 issue of the Jamestown Foundation\u2019s Terrorism Monitor<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew McGregor September 10, 2009 With al-Shabaab extremists threatening to try a captured French security advisor in Somalia under their version of Islamic law, the radical Islamist movement appears ready to provoke a French military intervention. The man is one … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,23,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-djibouti","category-france","category-somalia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1977,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974\/revisions\/1977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}