A prominent US-based Somalia analyst has rejected a statement by Jerry Rawlings, the African Union’s special envoy to Somalia, that Arab uprising in the Middle East and North Africa have weakened militant Islamist group al-Shabab’s finances.

Former Ghanian leader Rawlings late last week urged the international community to take advantage of the uprisings in states such as Libya and other nations in North Africa, saying that the supply of arms to Somalia were “beginning to fizzle out”. Mohammed Yusuf reports