MOGADIHU: The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia on Friday denounced recent reports by South African media that Somalis having links with Al Qaeda were planning terrorist attacks against US interests and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
The Somali Minister for Expatriate Affairs Abdulahi Omar Azhari who talked to reporters in Mogadishu on Friday said that it is unfortunate that Somali refugees in South Africa were being described as terrorists, saying that the recent media reports were baseless rumors.
He said that every nation in the world has rights to tighten its internal security, but he denied that there were Al Qaeda-linked Somalis in South Africa which is preparing to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup next year.
"All countries in the word can protect themselves against threats, but we are confirming that there are no Al Qaeda-linked Somalis in South Africa, so we are calling on the South African intelligence services not to earmark Somalis who have sought refuge there as terrorists," the minister stated.
Earlier this week, a leading South African newspaper reported that intelligence services have listened to a telephone conversation between some Somalis in South Africa and the Al Qaeda-linked group of Al Shabab discussing a plot to blow up World Cup facilities and the American embassy in Pretoria and other US interests in South Africa for revenge of the US helicopter attack that killed Al Qaeda’s commander in East Africa Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan on September 14.
Tens of thousands of Somali business people live in South Africa which became the second African nation where Somalis have the biggest businesses after the neighboring Kenya.
By Shafi`i Mohyaddin Abokar (Islow)
First vice president and head of international relations of SSPA
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