Somalia’s Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre has named the country’s new cabinet, choosing former al-Shabab spokesperson Muktar Robow as a minister, a move that could either help strengthen the fight against the insurgency or provoke clan clashes.

This new cabinet, nominated nearly 40 days after new Prime Minister Barre took office, will need the approval of the Somali parliament.

In televised remarks on Tuesday, Barre said Robow, who split from al-Shabab in 2013, would serve as the minister in charge of religion.

“After much deliberation with the president and the public, I have named cabinet ministers who have education and experience and they will fulfil their duties,” Barre said before announcing the cabinet appointees. “I ask the parliament to approve the cabinet," said Barre.

In June 2012, the State Department offered up to $5 million for information on Robow that brought him "to justice." 

At the time, he was still considered a top leader of al-Shabab, having served periods as its spokesman, spiritual leader and military commander.

But soon afterward, Robow exiled himself from the group because of long-running disputes with its emir, Ahmed Abdi Godane. 

Robow, who has been under house arrest for the last three years, in his hometown of Abal, south of Huddur, in Somalia's Bakool region had his own militias from his own clan in the area.

In December 2018, he was in Somalia’s South West State while campaigning for the regional presidency. The protests that followed were quashed with deadly force, with security forces shooting at least 11 people.

New Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, elected by lawmakers in May,  promised to take the fight to the armed groups after three years in which his predecessor, consumed by political infighting, took little action against al-Shabab.