On Thursday, hundreds of Somalis gathered in the capital city of Mogadishu to protest the al-Shabab, an organisation with ties to al-Qaeda.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was present at the demonstration in a strongly guarded stadium, pleaded with Somalis to help get rid of the "bedbugs" of the al-Shabab organisation.
“I’m calling to you, the people of Mogadishu, the Kharijites [renegades] are amongst you … so flush them out. They are in your houses, your neighbours, in cars that pass you by,” Mohamud told the crowd on Thursday. This was one of the biggest public gatherings in recent years.
“I want us to commit today to flushing them out. They are like bedbugs under our clothes,” he said as people waved flags and signs with messages against al-Shabab.
“We will never accept extremist killing or robbing our people and we will also never accept the killing of our innocent people. We will protect them from al-Shabab. Anyone who does that [kills innocent people] will face trial or justice,” Mohamud said.
“The people are tired of massacres, killings, and all kinds of misdeeds and they are now saying to al-Shabab: ‘Enough is enough’,” he said.
Citizens have also been instructed by his government to report any suspected militants among them.
A top adviser to the Somali president, Hodan Ali, told Al Jazeera that “it was about time that citizens rise up and claim their own security, backed by the government,” and that “we are seeing across the country a swell against al-Shabab.”
Since 2007, al-Shabab has been leading a violent insurgency against the internationally recognised government of Somalia. They have launched assaults inside Somalia and neighbouring countries, prompting those nations to send forces to aid in the war against al-Shabab.
There were 166 deaths at Garissa University in 2015 and 67 deaths at a mall in Nairobi in 2013, but the frequency and severity of al-Shabab assaults in Kenya have decreased in recent years.
Shortly after he took office in May last year, the president launched an “all-out” war against the group.
Since commencing a major offensive in August, the Somali government and allied clan groups have driven al-Shabab from vast areas of land. Still, the group has reacted with several strikes, including bombs in Mogadishu.
The rebels have repeatedly responded to the offensive with brutal attacks, demonstrating their capacity to target vital infrastructure in Somalian cities.
Al-Shabab has been pushed out of Mogadishu and other major metropolitan centres, although they still hold sway over some rural areas in central and southern Somalia.