Mukhtar Robow has been given the publish of spiritual affairs minister within the authorities of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Not all Somalis supported his ministerial appointment, with some calling it disrespectful to those that misplaced family members in al-Shabab assaults.
A former deputy chief of the al-Shabab extremist group has been named a authorities minister by Somalia’s new administration in a transfer some analysts declare is an opportunity to steer fighters to denounce violence.
Mr Robow, who as soon as had a 5 million greenback (£4 million) US bounty on his head, defected from the al Qaida-linked al-Shabab in 2017 and at first was greeted with reward by Somalia’s authorities.
However when he tried to hunt the management of the nation’s south-west area in 2018, he was detained.
The rationale behind Mr Robow’s arrest has by no means been made clear, Somalia’s present president on a number of events has stated the detention had no authorized grounds. Somalia’s authorities didn’t touch upon his appointment on Tuesday.
Mr Robow, who’s believed to be in his early fifties, studied Islamic legislation in Sudan and is believed to have participated within the anti-Soviet combating in Afghanistan. He as soon as praised Osama bin Laden and tried to impose an Islamic state in Somalia.
In 2008, the US imposed sanctions on him and named him a “specifically designated international terrorist”.
He left al-Shabab after a dispute with the group’s hardliners. “I disagreed with their creed, which doesn’t serve Islamic faith,” he stated on the time.
His defection occurred shortly after the US eliminated the bounty from his head on the Somali authorities’s request.
Somalia has engaged in US-backed efforts encourage fighters to depart al-Shabab within the perception that every defection exposes weak point within the extremist group, which has hundreds of fighters and nonetheless controls massive elements of the agricultural south and central areas.
