Author(s): Publish date: 02.04.2024, 14:40 | Creation date: 02.04.2024, 14:40 | Update date: 29.07.2025, 10:55
FALSE: Equating Somalia and Al Shabab is untrue
Somalia is a country while Al Shabab is an insurgent group based in Somalia.
This post shared on X and equating Somalia and Al Shabab is FALSE.
“Somalia is Al Shabab,” the post stated. The hashtags that said, “#somaliland, #Ethiopian, and #Somalia” are used alongside the post.
Moreover, a link that directs to an article that was shared on the Aljazeera website is attached to advance the claims.
The headline of the article reads, “From al-Shabab to the cabinet: Somalia’s move fuels debate.” The article was published on 5 August 2022. It discusses the appointment of a former al-Shabab leader, Mukhtar Robow, as a minister to Somalia’s cabinet.
Before MukhtarRobow ran for office in Somalia, he served Al-Shabab as the spokesman and deputy leader. Then he was appointed to head Somalia’s anti-terror ministry.
However, equating Somalia and Al Shabab is factually incorrect. Somalia is a country that is found in the Horn of Africa while Al-Shabab is an insurgent group based in Somalia.
Since 2006, Al-Shabab has been engaged in battle with the Somali government. For instance, it was reported on 10 January 2024 that Al-Shabab had taken control of a UN helicopter in Somalia, and Somali forces are still looking for passengers.
PesaCheck has examined a post shared on X that equates Somalia and Al Shabab and found it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here's more information on PesaCheck's methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker (Name of Fact-Checker) and edited by PesaCheck Chief Copy Editor [Name of Editor] with research input from/ translated by (Name of researcher/Translator).
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor (Name of Managing Editor).
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent's largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.
