Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said that the military operations against Al-Shabaab will not stop until the final victory is achieved.
He made this statement a few days after the government forces withdrew from several towns, following an attack by Al-Shabaab on soldiers in the village of Cowsweyne that caused a lot of casualties on Saturday.
“Either we lose a war zone or someone spreads wrong news, the war will continue, we will not stop, we will not retreat from where we are,” he said. “We will achieve the final victory that we are looking for. The important thing is to achieve the final victory. The final victory is near.”
He praised the government forces that succeeded in driving Al-Shabaab out of a large area since the start of the offensive last year, and praised the local fighters who took part in those operations.
“Al-Shabaab today is weaker, they are smaller in number,” he said. “We are more experienced, more numerous, more equipped. And we have the victory in our hands.
The president said that al-Shabaab buried the militiamen who died in the Galmudug war in mass graves. He said the government will expose the mass graves, so that an investigation can be done.
“They have finished their injuries, [because] they don’t have hospitals, they don’t have medicine,” he said. “The army will reach those mass graves and investigate,” said th
