Nairobi--Kenya froze key money transfer companies vital for Somalia Wednesday after the police chief issued a list of 85 people and businesses with suspected links to the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab.
Top of the list issued in an official government gazette notice was alleged Shebab commander Mohamed Mohamud, said to be the mastermind behind the university massacre of almost 150 people last week.
But the list also included money transfer companies that provide a crucial way for relatives to send remittances from abroad to war-torn Somalia, including Dahabshiil, one of the most important transfer companies across the wider Horn of Africa region.
Their suspension in Kenya would have major impact on money transfers, with aid agencies warning in the past their suspension would hit some of poorest people the hardest.
With no formal banking system in the impoverished country, diaspora Somalis turn to money transfer services to send money back home to support their families, sending some $1.3 billion (1.1 billion euros) each year, dwarfing foreign aid.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday warned Shebab fighters his government will respond to their killing of 148 people in the university in Garissa in the "severest way" possible, with warplanes on Monday attacking Islamist bases in southern Somalia.
But Kenyatta also warned that the masterminds behind last Thursday's attack were inside Kenya, not Somalia.
"The planners and financiers of this brutality are deeply embedded in our communities," he said.
"We will not allow them to continue their lives as normal, the full force of the law will be brought to bear with even greater intensity that has been the case in previous years."
AFP
