DJIBOUTI — Few days after a video by the Al-Qaeda linked group in Somalia threatened attacks on shopping malls in Canada and US, Djibouti’s president called their warning ‘empty threat.
Speaking to the VOA Somali, Ismael Guelleh dismissed Al-Shabab’s threat of attacking western malls, calling others to avoid exaggerating the group’s ‘failing’ insurgency.
“They have no power to do anything; they are standing on their final leg.” Guelleh said in the interview on Tuesday.
On the other hand, the president talked about Djibouti’s decision to close border with the breakaway Somaliland, saying the government has reinforced the border, citing security reasons.
“We are simply exercising vigilance given the warnings and past threats.” he added.
Al-Shabab carried out a suicide bombing on a café in Djibouti in June last year, killing a Turkish national and wounded fifteen others, in an attack on the tiny horn of Africa nation which hasn’t experienced attacks by the al-Qaeda-linked group fighting troops, including Djiboutian forces based in central Somalia.
