Baladweyne (Alshahid) – Sheikh Abdirahman Ibrahim Ma’ow, a key Islamist governor of Hiiraan region in central Somalia said Monday his administration of the Islamic courts Union in the region withdrew support from Somali government.
“The purpose of this press conference is to inform the society of our decision concerning the support we have hitherto offered to the Somali transitional government,” he said.
“As of today, we clearly state that we are withdrawing our backing and can no longer be considered pro-government,” he said in Beledweyn, a town on the border with Ethiopia, some 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu.
Under his administration, the region had been hostile to the TFG but he rallied the new administration of fellow ICU leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, when he was elected Somalia’s president in January.
Over the weekend, Ethiopian forces entered Beledweyn and ousted insurgent forces, of Al-Shabaab group, in one of Addis Ababa’s most visible interventions since officially pulling out of Somalia in January.
Although he did not explicitly say he was breaking his alliance with the TFG over Ethiopia’s increasing military presence in the region, Sheikh Ma’ow made no secret of his irritation.
“I was out of the region when the Ethiopian forces entered Beledweyn. I was not aware and nobody informed me of their deployment,” he said.
“I am not happy with the intervention of foreign forces, particularly Ethiopian forces in Somalia,” he said, insisting that he would not join forces with the insurgency.
Sheik Ma’ow was a close associate of Somali president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and he was in Mogadishu for the past two months. He returned back to Baladweyen on Friday.
