"We are Somalia". Statements by al-Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamed Rage.

Between 26 and 28 March 2023, Al-Furqan Islamic Radio, one of the media outlets aligned with the jihadist group Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujaheddin, released a very long interview of one of the organisation’s spokesmen, Ali Mohamed Rage.

Ali Mohamed Rage, also known as Ali Dheere, is one the most important, spokesman of al-Shabaab since May 2009. A veteran jihadist, he is a senior leader of the Somali jihadist and Qaedist organisation and a member of the Shura Council.

Rage, born in the Hawlwadag district of Mogadishu in Somalia in 1966, was designated a global terrorist by the US State Department on 6 August 2021.

The audio interview on Al-Furqan Islamic Radio was published in two parts on two different days for a total of about one hour of audio in Somali and translated into Arabic.