Tuesday December 8, 2015
A map shows the location of Barawe, southwest of Mogadishu, where US citizen Malik John, who had fought with Islamist militant group al-Shabaab, has surrendered to officials.
An American citizen who fought for the Shabab militant group in Somalia surrendered to the authorities, a Somali official said Monday.
The official, Col. Ali Dalel Hirsi, said the American, Malik John, had surrendered earlier in the day on the edge of Barawe, about 135 miles southwest of the capital, Mogadishu.
The Shabab want to topple Somalia’s Western-backed government and have staged frequent bomb and gun attacks in Mogadishu.
The group has also hit targets in neighboring Kenya since its troops joined African Union peacekeeping forces in Somalia.
Colonel Hirsi passed the phone to Mr. John, who said from captivity that he was 31, from Maryland and had been fighting for the Shabab for about four years.
“I decided to leave them two months ago,” he said.
“I hated them because I found their ideology was totally wrong.
” Mr. John said he had escaped the group six days earlier and walked for days.
“I am physically O.K. now but not mentally,” he said.
Somalia’s government has been trying to persuade Shabab fighters to defect by promising them amnesties.
Mr. John said that he had heard about the amnesty and that, if possible, he wanted to return to Maryland.