MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) Security services in Mogadishu have seen a new wave of defections from the Islamic extremists of al-Shabab, men who can provide valuable information or scouting services for the police, military and intelligence service.
Though some defectors have proved to be double agents who carry out close-rangeattacks, the government is still cooperating with defectors for the valuable insider information that the honest ones bring.
Abdirahman Omar Osman, the spokesman of the Somali president, said former al-Shabab fighters are "not easily trusted" and must go through a rehabilitation process in order to work with the government.
Abdi Aynte, the head of a think tank in Mogadishu, said there is no doubt defectors have been valuable to the government, but that stronger background checks are needed to prevent infiltration.
