The Somali president has called on al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab militants to lay down arms and choose the “path to peace,” warning the Takfiri group against pledging allegiance to Daesh terrorists.

Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud said in a statement on Wednesday the latest al-Shabab dispute on whether to switch allegiance were “symptomatic of a group that has lost its way.”

He made the comments amid reports that al-Shabab factions have shifted allegiance from al-Qaeda Takfiri group to Daesh, another terrorist outfit mainly operating in Iraq and Syria.

Mohamoud further said both al-Qaeda and Daesh are “destroyers,” adding that Somalis “do not need a new brand of horror and repression.”

The president also called on Shabab elements to surrender, saying, “Do not think that your choice is limited to one of two puppet-masters, al-Qaeda or Daesh. There is another option, the right and holy option: the path to peace.”

Shabab, which pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012, has been behind violence and chaos in Somalia since 2006, targeting key government and security figures in the African state.

The militants have been pushed out of the capital city of Mogadishu and other major cities in the country by government troops and the African Union Mission to Somalia, known as AMISOM.

However, Shabab members still remain a threat in both Somalia and neighboring Kenya, where they have carried out a series of terror attacks.