A senior leader in Somalia’s Islamist movement wanted by the country’s transitional government has surrendered to authorities in neighbouring Kenya, a Kenyan official and diplomatic sources said on Monday.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, head of the executive arm of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS), presented himself to Kenyan officials at the border on the weekend and is being held in an undisclosed location, they said.
A senior Kenyan police official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Ahmed and three other Somalis had been detained early on Sunday at a small border crossing point called Hulugho.
The official, who declined to be identified, had few other details.
Two diplomatic sources confirmed that Ahmed was in Kenyan custody, a day after speculation began to run rampant in Nairobi that he had entered Kenya.
”Sheikh Sharif is in Kenya,” one diplomatic source said on condition of anonymity. ”He is in a secure place, according to the Kenyan authorities.”
”We understand that he turned himself in,” said the second diplomatic source, also speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.
Ahmed is considered a moderate among hardliners in the Somali Islamist movement that was ousted from Mogadishu and strongholds in southern Somalia in recent weeks by Ethiopian and Somali government forces.
The second diplomatic source said the sheikh could be a useful element in pulling Somali factions together for dialogue as part of efforts to reconcile the shattered lawless nation.
”He is one of the people we think can promote dialogue,” the source said.
The United States, which backed Ethiopia’s intervention in Somalia and then launched an air strike at suspected al-Qaeda operatives there, has said in the past it believes Ahmed could be a worthy interlocutor in that process.
US Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger, whose brief includes Somalia, met with Ahmed in Nairobi last year after the Islamists seized Mogadishu from US-backed warlords in June to press moderation on the then-powerful movement. — AFP
