Radical Islamic insurgents from the al-Shabaab group in Somalia officially declared Monday that they will ally with the al-Qaeda network, BBC reported.

The group said that it intends “to connect the horn of Africa jihad to the one led by al-Qaeda and its leader Sheikh Osama Bin Laden.”

It is the first time the Somalian hard-line jihadists have confirmed their affiliation with al-Qaeda.

Al-Shabaab controls large parts of Southern Somalia, while the Western-backed government struggles to take hold of part of Mogadishu, the Somalian capital.

Another insurgent group called Kamboni, under the lead of the Hassan Al-Turki, also signed the agreement with al-Shabaab during a large insurgent gathering in the Baidoa city in Southern Somalia, local media reported.

According to other media reports, the insurgents were involved in fighting in Mogadishu over the weekend, when at least 15 people were killed and more than 120 injured.

Government forces and peacekeepers from the African Union used artillery shelling against the insurgent’s stronghold, after the militants from al-Shabaab fired mortar bombs at the presidential palace.

Somalia was left without a functioning central government in 1991, when the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown. Since then, various insurgents groups have been fighting over power in the country.

Separated only by the Gulf of Aden, Somalia and Yemen became a safe haven for Islamist insurgents, who are exploiting the lawlessness, poverty, and weak central government.