(SomaliNet) Somali’s interim government top official said on Friday that troops defected from the Islamic Courts Union joined his government in Baidoa city, the capital Bay province in southwest Somalia. It is the first time militia from Islamic Courts joins the government since its rise in Somalia in early June. In a news conference held today in Baidoa city, the deputy minister of defense in the transitional federal government Salad Ali Jelle said that they had welcomed in Baidoa large number of defected militia from Islamic Courts after they could not stand with what he called ‘the extremism acts’.
“We are here indicating that my government has welcomed the joining of about 350 militia from Islamic Courts to the government’ Mr. Ali Jelle said “they were the local militia who came from Bur-Hakaba area where it controlled by the terrorist group of Islamic Courts.”
He told the reporters in Baidoa that the defection of the militia came after they faced difficulties from the Islamic Courts, which confiscated all the battlewagons they belonged. “The militia reached at Karkor village 20km of Baidia, where we have sent trucks to take them to the city,” Jele added.
The Islamic Court official in Bur-Hakaba town 180km southwest of the capital admitted the defection of the local militia but their number is smaller than the claim by the government. Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal, the leader of the Al-Bayan Islamic Court, confirmed the news on the defection but said they were about 13 militia who would not have an impact on the Islamic Courts. “There have been thirteen local militia who defected to the government and I think they do so for Khat reasons, because they were all Khat consumers and this would have nothing to do with our power,” Bilal said. “I am absolutely dismissing the remarks from Salad Ali Jelle in which he said the number of the defected militia were hundreds…he was lying and told untrue story to the reporters.”
Three officers of the defected Islamist troops identified as Abdi Madey Ibrahim, Abdi Gaas Hussein and Barow Mohamed Hassan could be seen sitting beside where Mr. Jelle was speaking to the reporters in Baidoa.