Shabaab has officially opened a new front in the Horn of Africa. The al Qaeda branch unsurprisingly has claimed credit for the double suicide attack in Djibouti on May 25 that killed one person and wounded several Westerners. Shabaab spokesman Ali Dheere claimed that attack in a speech today. His speech was reported on by the Shahada News Agency, “a Somalia-focused jihadi media group,” according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which obtained and translated the statement.
Ali Dheere was clear that the target of the suicide attack was Westerners, and “the French specifically because they are the most severe people in harming the Muslims in Africa, particularly in Central Africa, where they committed heinous crimes and massacres against Muslims.”
Sectarian violence in the Central African Republic has increasing become a call to arms for al Qaeda and its branches.
According to Shahada News Agency, “Sheikh Ali Dheere emphasized that the operation targeted a gathering of NATO, which fights Islam.” Shabaab planned the operation to kill or injure as many Western personnel as possible, and the location of the attack, a restaurant, “had officials from five countries, namely France, America, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium.”
Additionally, Shabaab chastised the Djiboutian government for being “an agent and apostate government,” and warned that “the Caliphate will return and resurrection will not be until the Caliphate returns once again.”
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