The president of Somalia's Government of National Unity has angrily criticized Al Qaeda terror group's leader Osama Bin Laden for urging Islamist rebels to overthrow the Somali government, Radio Garowe reports.
President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, who returned to the capital Mogadishu on Friday, held a press conference at the presidential compound Villa Somalia today.
"All the countries we visited voiced support for the [Somali] government," President Sheikh Sharif said, while referring to his first foreign trip spanning six countries and meetings with African leaders.
Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed
The Somali leader spoke specifically about his stopovers in Uganda and Burundi, two African Union member states that maintain a 4,000-strong peacekeeping force [AMISOM] in Mogadishu.
"AMISOM peacekeepers are part of the Djibouti Agreement and they are intended to support the government in efforts to restore security," the Somali President said, adding: "They will leave the country at our request."
President Sheikh Sharif said the leaders of Libya and Sudan informed him that they wish to mediate between the Somali government and its armed opposition, led by Islamist hardliners.
He urged Somali media to refer to government forces as "national troops," while condemning the assassination attempt on the life of Interior Minister Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar. READ: Somalia's influential Islamist interior minister survives deadly blast
"The man who thinks he will go to Heaven by spilling the blood of a Muslim like Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar is living a lie," the Somali President stated.
He briefly spoke about Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden's latest message, which called for the Somali government to be overthrown by Islamist rebels, after accusing Sheikh Sharif of being a puppet of the West.
"Al Qaeda did not teach us the religion [Islam], did not donate funds to us and did not support governance in Somalia," the Somali president added.
