Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, known as Abu Mansur, is a former deputy leader and former spokesman of the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab.
11 Facts About Mukhtar Robow
2.
In 2022, Robow was appointed as the Minister of Religious Affairs in the Somali government.
3.
Mukhtar Robow was born on 10 October 1969 in Huddur, in the Bakool region of southern Somalia.
4.
Mukhtar Robow studied at a local Qur'anic school, and later continued his religious education in the mosques of Mogadishu as well as those of his home region.
5.
Mukhtar Robow studied Islamic law in the 1990s at the University of Khartoum in Sudan.
6.
Godane killed two of the leading members, and Mukhtar Robow fled to his home district.
7.
Mukhtar Robow, known as Abu Mansour, made the announcement to hundreds of his supporters in a welcoming rally in the South Western town of Baidoa.
8.
The Coalition for Change, which has thrown its weight behind Mukhtar Robow, issued a statement after the polls were postponed.
9.
Some 150 elite Somali forces, armed with DShK rifles, were deployed to Baidoa to physically block Mukhtar Robow from accessing the election venue.
10.
On 13 December 2018, Mukhtar Robow was arrested by African Union peacekeepers from Ethiopia and flown to Mogadishu under tight security.
11.
Mukhtar Robow's arrest prompted the resignation of Somalia's Public Works Minister Abdifatah Mohamed Gesey, who hails from Baidoa and is from the same Leysan sub-clan as Mukhtar Robow, in protest.