First of all, we need to underline the following:

“Kenya and Somalia have a long history of friendship and cooperation, and that continues today.

Kenya has long been an active supporter of peace and stability in Somalia.

The Transitional Federal Charter that created the TFG was agreed to in Kenya, and Kenya has long been a leading advocate of having the international community assist in the stabilization and rebuilding of our country.

Secondly, we thank Kenyan government for its working together with Somali transitional federal government to stabilize Somalia and for training good number of Somali soldiers as well as hosting huge number of Somali refugees.

In fact, the people of Somalia as well as many of friends in the region including Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, etc. have suffered at the hands of Al-Shabaab from their violence. We all share the need to defeat and destroy Al-Shabaab. No one wants to see demise of Al-Shabaab more than the people of Somalia.

We also share the attitude that Al-Shabaab constitutes a common enemy to both countries and in this regard, the sovereignty and the Territorial integrity of both Somalia and Kenya should be respected.

Therefore, to evolve a common security strategy, we agreed with our brothers Kenyan government on the following:
Cooperation in undertaking coordinated security and military operations spearheaded by TFG soldiers trained by Kenyan government.

Cooperation and collaboration in sharing and exchange of information that is relevant to the fight against cross border crimes and operations.

We also need to clarify that as part of NSSP endorsed by the stakeholders the TFG will do the following:
1. Liberating the whole country from the tyranny of al-Shabaab with the help of AMISOM, IGAD and friendly countries.

2. Stabilizing all areas freed from Al-Shabaab.

3. Establishing – in accordance with the Transitional Federal charter – local administrations in the liberated areas to avoid a vacuum.
We call on the international community to redouble its efforts to help those most in need once these territories are freed from the tyranny of al Shabaab.

Once again we welcome the support of the International Community in defeating Al-Shabaab and wish to emphasize the need to do this while respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia.

This statement was issued by the Ministry of Information, Posts & Telecommunications of the Republic of Somalia.