Somalia bans 'al-Shabab' name from media

MOGADISHU, Somalia, May 4 (UPI) -- The al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist group al-Shabab must no longer be referred to by that name, Somalia's government told journalists Monday.

The name, which means "youth" in Arabic, should be replaced with "ugus," an acronym for "Ururka Gumaadka Ummadda Soomaaliyeed," or "the group that massacres the Somali people," the government said. Al-Shabab's propaganda arm responded by suggesting journalists refer to the government as "ugus," to them the acronym meaning "the group that subjects the Somali people to humiliation."

The propaganda battle between al-Shabab and the Somali government has been in progress since 2009, when al-Shabab was launched to oppose then-president of Somalia's Transitional Federal government, Shiekh Sharif Sheikh Admed. The government's Radio Mogadishu and SNTV have begun using the term "ugus" to denote al-Shabab, although journalists will likely anger al-Shabab by employing the term or anger the government by not complying with the order, the British Broadcasting Corp. noted Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited nearby Kenya Monday, a key ally in the fight against terrorist organizations such as al-Shabab. He laid a wreath at a Nairobi memorial park dedicated to victims of a 1998 attack on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people, and commented that terrorism was an ineffective tool against countries united against it.

"The only place for al-Qaida, al-Shabab and Boko Haram is in the past. They have no future," he said. "We should all unite in fighting terror because there is more strength in our solidarity than in any terrorist attack. Terrorism will always fail," Kerry said.