JILIB (SD) – Somalia’s militant group, Al-Shabaab has warned people in their areas against COVID-19 inoculation barely two weeks after Somalia launched COVID-19 vaccinations.

In a statement, Al-Shabaab’s Office of Politics and Wilaayaat said the vaccination’s harms far outweigh its benefits.

 “Rather than strengthen the immune system and contribute to the prevention of the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, the AstraZeneca vaccine –rolled out by UNICEF and administered by the apostate Somali regime –does more harm than good and has an array of adverse side effects as illustrated by many health professionals and proven in medical researches around the world,” the statement reads in part.

Al-Shabaab’s statement comes as the Somali health ministry urged the public to take the vaccine to protect themselves against the virus.

The Horn of Africa nation, which recently experienced a surge of cases received its first shipment of 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the international COVAX initiative to ensure that low- and middle-income countries receive vaccines.

The nation lost at least 510 people to Coronavirus since last year when the first case of the virus was recorded in the horn of Africa Nation.

On Tuesday, Somalia recorded 187 new positive Covid-19 cases recorded in the last 48 hours.

The total number of confirmed cases in the country stands at 11,164 cases after 187 of 1,220 samples tested positive.