Al-Shabaab recommends use of honey in fight against COVID-19 pandemic

NAIROBI, Kenya - As part of their propaganda campaigns, the Al-Shabaab militants have now recommended the use of honey and black seeds in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the world strives to improve some of the vaccines that have been approved by the World Health Organization.

Somalia is one of the countries which is struggling to contain the virus, a move that has forced authorities to revisit some of the public restrictions, as a mitigation measure to the raging pandemic. Thousands have been infected with hundreds dying especially in Banadir, Puntland, and Jubaland.

Al-Shabaab has seized on such comments and public advisories in European nations to baselessly assert that the vaccine is “deadly” and “unsafe” for the Muslims of Somalia. Instead, the militant group prescribes “black seed and honey” to people suffering from COVID-19 in Somalia, as the nation battles 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 Al Mujahideen’s Office of Politics and Wilaayaat warns the Muslims of Somalia against using the AstraZeneca vaccination,” said a statement which was issued by the militant group and posted on Twitter.

“Do not allow your family to be used as subjects in the experimentation of the safety of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine”, says Al-Shabaab.

Initially, the militants had dismissed the virus as an "infectious disease from the west" as they asked members to "refrain from contracting it". The statement comes as Somalia’s Ministry of Health kick-started the first phase of COVID-19 vaccinations after receiving its first consignment of vaccines from the COVAX facility.

Already, Somalia which received 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, is urging priority groups, such as frontline workers and persons with underlying health conditions, to take the vaccine as the nation's COVID-19 death toll rose to 576.

However, experts in the region fear that the militia’s strong anti-vaccine messaging, which is laced with religious undertones, could inflame anti-vaccine sentiments, threatening to reverse the government’s efforts to dispel misinformation and vaccine hesitancy.

“Al-Shabaab’s anti-AstraZeneca narratives are peddling the idea that the use of any COVID-19 treatment or vaccine other than ‘black seed and honey’ is un-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 fabric. The group’s influence has continued to permeate these spheres. As such, its ideology has remained strong as they resonate with many in the society who see the group as a viable alternative to the current government in Villa Somalia. Interestingly, Al-Shabaab is using research by so-called ‘disbelievers’ of Islam from the West to argue against the Astra-Zeneca vaccine, whilst simultaneously pinning responsibility for Somalia’s COVID-19 situation on ‘western disbelievers’ in Somalia.”

Al-Shabaab has been fighting to oust the Somali government and establish an Islamic state: resorting to deadly violence to achieve its ideological and political aims.

Foreign and national interventions to quell the jihadist fundamentalist group, which has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, have fuelled a grizzly long-running conflict that has exacerbated the nation’s humanitarian crisis and left Somalia with one of Africa’s most emaciated health systems as it fights the coronavirus pandemic.

GAROWE ONLINE