NAIROBI, Kenya – As part of their propaganda campaigns, Al-Shabaab militants have now recommended the use of honey and black seeds in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, although the world is striving to improve some of the vaccines that have been approved by the World Health Organization.
Somalia is one of the countries fighting to contain the virus, a move that has forced the authorities to revise some of the public restrictions as a mitigating measure to the raging pandemic. Thousands have been infected with hundreds dying, especially in Banadir, Northeastern State and Jubaland.
Al-Shabaab has used such comments and public advice in European nations to fundamentally claim that the vaccine is “deadly” and “unsafe” for Muslims in Somalia. Instead, the militant group prescribes “black seeds and honey” to people suffering from COVID-19 in Somalia as the nation struggles with a deadly second wave of coronavirus infections.
“In light of the vaccination campaign launched by the apostate Somali regime in the capital Mogadishu, Harakat Al-Shabaab warns Al Mujahideen’s Political Office and the Wilaayaat Muslims in Somalia against using the AstraZeneca vaccination,” a statement issued by the militant group and posted on Twitter.
“Do not allow your family to be used as subjects in the experimentation with the safety of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine,” says Al-Shabaab.
Originally, the militants had dismissed the virus as a “contagious disease from the West” when they asked members to “refrain from getting it”. The statement comes as Somalia’s Ministry of Health launched the first phase of COVID-19 vaccinations after receiving its first shipment of vaccines from the COVAX facility.
Somalia, which received 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, is already urging priority groups, such as frontline workers and people with underlying health conditions, to take the vaccine as the country’s COVID-19 death toll rose to 576.
However, experts in the region fear that the militia’s strong anti-vaccine messages, laced with religious undertones, could ignite anti-vaccine sentiment and threaten to reverse the government’s efforts to remove misinformation and hesitation against the vaccine.
“Al-Shabaab’s anti-AstraZeneca narratives spoil the idea that the use of COVID-19 treatment or vaccine other than ‘black seed and honey’ is not Islamic”, an analyst at the HORN Institute for Strategic Studies – a Nairobi based policy think tank – told VICE World News.
“Despite losing territorial control in Somalia, al-Shabaab remains a key aspect of Somalia’s political, social and economic structure. The group’s influence continues to permeate these spheres. As such, its ideology has been strong as they resonate with many in the community who see the group as a viable alternative to the current government in Villa Somalia. Interestingly, Al-Shabaab uses research from so-called ‘infidels’ of Islam from the West to argue against the Astra-Zeneca vaccine, while maintaining responsibility for Somalia’s COVID-19 situation on ‘Western infidels’ in Somalia. ”
Al-Shabaab has fought to remove the Somali government and establish an Islamic state: resort to deadly violence to achieve its ideological and political goals.
Foreign and national interventions to quell the jihadist fundamentalist group that has pledged al-Qaeda allegations have fueled a protracted conflict that has exacerbated the nation’s humanitarian crisis and left Somalia with one of Africa’s most exhausted health systems as it fights coronavirus pandemics.
AXADLETM
