Mobile money transfers in Africa are part of a conspiracy to rob the continent of its money, subjugate its people and impede mujahideen, the media wing of the Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab wrote this week.

On Tuesday, Al-Kataib warned phone companies to stop providing mobile transfers by the end of January. "We warn all companies that intend to introduce similar services to Somalia to refrain from such actions," the statement said.

It spelled out a series of problems created by mobile money transfers, which were described as part of "The control that the Jews have over the financial system in the West and the spread of the so-called economic globalization." The Middle East Media Research Institute reports.

Among those problems, destroying the hawala system – the network of Muslim money transfer operators; allowing financial transactions by Mujahideen to be monitored and intercepted; and exploiting poor people by making "them hostages to this service in all their financial activity."

The statement urges Muslims to find other ways to invest or move money promising "that we will not relent in protecting them and their wealth from any danger that surrounds them by the help and grace of Allah."