Mine Action is paying the salaries of police officers working for the government and bribing village elders to fight against al-Shabaab, the group said in a statement today.

Most of southern and central Somalia is controlled by al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam, following a two-year battle with the country’s Western-backed government.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Hamsa Omar in Mogadishu via Johannesburg at
asguazzin@bloomberg.net