One of the main openly pro-Shabaab websites used to disseminate the group’s ideas across the world and radicalise youths appears to have been suspended.
The website (www.radioalfurqaan.com) has been suspended in the recent days by its webhost in what appears to be crackdown on the presence of the militants online to deter their recruitment and radicalising activities in Somalia and the region.
The website used to post messages by Al Shabaab leaders encouraging or glorifying their horrific attacks including those against innocent unarmed civilians in Somalia and Kenya and encouraging more similar attacks.
It also used to carry reports of their latest battles against the Federal Government of Somalia and foreign troops from the African Union inside the country while encouraging readers to join their cause.
In the recent past, some security experts have been calling for openly pro- shabaab websites to be shut down by law enforcement agencies across the world as they aid their cause of recruiting more youths into indiscriminate violence. They argue that this move will bring down the capacity of the group to win sympathisers and active members.
A few years ago, social networking site Twitter also suspended the account of the militants several times to block them from getting their message to the world and recruiting gullible persons.
However, two other key pro-shabaab websites are still in operation, carrying forward their main mandate of publishing their ideas including www.somalimemo.net and www.calamada.com
For instance, both websites have published an audio statement of Al Shabaab spokesman justifying and glorifying the most recent attack in Jazeera Hotel in Mogadishu in which at least 13 people were while the Kenya envoy to Somalia escaped narrowly.
One of the websites, www.somalimemo.net also has a Kiswahili segment targeting Kenyan youths with their reports in order to win sympathisers and supporters.
Apart from the website, the militant group also runs a number of radio stations in the areas of Southern and Central Somalia that still remain under their hands.
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