Al-Shabaab which is also referred to as Ash-Shabaab and Hizbul Shabaab which owes their origin from Arabic and means “The Party of Youth” and in its public image and media productions the outfit calls itself “Harakat al-Shabab al-Mujahideen,” which also translates to movement of the youthful warriors (Pantucci, 2009). It is a group of Somalia Islamists resistance which was formed in 2004 when they lost the control of Islamic Courts Union (ICU) to the Transitional Somali Federal Government (TFG) and its supporters which was mainly Ethiopian military in the war of 2006 to 2007.
The Somali country has been a hot spot for civil unrest and a lot of instability running for over the past two decades as it has been in a state of anarchy without a properly constituted government as it has warlords controlling regions that operate on a series of codes and agreements. A movement that advocates Islamic justice took over control and instituted their own court of justice for the nation using Islamic law for the basis of legal regulations of citizens as well as dispensing judgments between different tribes and factions. The court known as the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) started gaining popularity support among the locals working on the establishment of order through out the regions of Somali thus the stability of the country and success of ICU prompted Ethiopian invasion of Somalia to offer support to the transitional government to eliminate the Al Shabaab (Pantucci, 2009).
At first the Al-Shabaab organization represented the militant youth movement described as hard-line within the Islamic ICU but now it has evolved to become an extremist group of the ICU but since the downfall of ICU the youth movement is not viable and is inconsequential.
Al-Shabaab has the mandate to recruit jihadists in order to wage war against perceived “enemies of Islam” thus designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization operating in the Horn of Africa by the United States Department of State hence proscribed as a terrorist group by various world governments as the Australian government, Norwegian Police Security Service and the Swedish Security Service (Juma, 2009).
The Al Shabaab’s ultimate objectives are very similar to other Islamic fundamentalist movements which are geared towards achieving unification of Islamic Caliphate in the Muslim world (Abisaid, 2008) which is designed to be achieved through a number of stages as the first is through military resistance to any invasion by foreign forces to any Muslim country as they also seek and rally for support of the public (Juma, 2009). Stage two is to encompass confrontation and eradication of any opposition that can rise internally to a comprehensive institution of Islamic system in Somalia which is finally to be followed by governance and Sharia law implementation. This stage of initiation involves starting attacks on hostile and neighbouring communities that are defiant to their rule and as for the case of Al shabaab, their desire to attack Ethiopia and other countries that are viewed by the organization as defiant to their rule such as the European Union, Israel and United States (Hanson, 2009).
The Al- Shabaab organization relies heavily on public support as a vital component in the progression and funding of militant campaign. They also received moral support from Prominent Islamic Scholars who during their lectures and weekly Friday preaching’s exerted a lot of influence of which most of them rallied for support of Al-shabaab (Anti-Defamation League, 2009).
The Al- Shabaab in their attempt to control Somalia, first before taking over a territory hold meetings with the tribal and religious leaders of local villages where they announce their aims and intentions to rally for local support in pursuit of their goals. This resulted to most villages in the Southern provinces of Somalia pledging their allegiance to the Al-shabaab movement. The Al-Shabaab fighters also received orders from their seniors to adhere to a very strict code of conduct as spelled out in the teachings of Islam. This strictness in the code of conduct is seen in the organization’s involvement in the distribution of relief food, reconstruction of the country and other forms of humanitarian assistance as to lack of corruption in their activities (Abisaid, 2008). The Al-Shabaab movement have also been harsh and very vocal against individuals and groupings they consider to be against social and economic vices such as human trafficking, drug dealing and prostitution.
The reputation of the organization has gained popularity over a short period of time as its adherence to morality as earned them praise in the Muslim world as the vanguards of Islam thus received overwhelming support from local sympathisers and globally in Muslim nations. The Al-Shabaab ideology can be described as Salafi and hardline as it emphasizes jihadism and good implementation of Islamic law of Sharia. Even though the organization’s movement structure can be practically decentralised and loose but very much coordinated when it comes to counter-attacking external forces. The number of Al-Shabaab members is not fully documented but it is estimated to be approximately 100 000 fighters of which most of them are foreign jihadists that come as reinforcement for the cause (Juma, 2009). Schaeffer, B. (2009) says that, “A few of the trainees were sent to advance training for guerrilla tactics in Eritrea.” It has been rumored that some of the organization’s fundings are sourced from piracy activities which has been denied the East African Maritime Organization.
The Al- Shabaab movement employs different tactics to achieve their main objective of confronting hostile forces and military resistance and at the same time rallying support from the Somalia people to sympathise with the Mujahedeen. Conventional gun, guerrilla tactics and battles are used by the group when battling the TNG and Ethiopian forces as incursions, skirmishes, targeted assassinations, suicide bombings, artillery fire and detonated explosions are ostensibly used to attack particular targets. A substantial number of training camps have been in operation in the Southern territories that are very loyal to Al- Shabaab movement where new recruits receive a 6 weeks training before engaging in military operations (Hanson, 2009).
The organization gets its funding from four main primary sources both within Somalia and internationally. The main source of obtaining funds is through collections from willingful donations from villagers under the organization’s authority. A big portion of long term funding is provided by religious leaders, local mosques and community networks which are geared towards logistical and operational support. It has also been reported that a good chunk of the money received as ransoms by pirates in international waters is diverted to fund the operational costs (Wallis, 2008). Funding also comes in from donations acquired from Muslims the world over notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other numerous gulf states that are prominent source of funding (Abisaid, 2008).
Supporters of Al-Shabaab militant movement believe that the only way they can sacrifice themselves is to be on the path of God be it through monetary means or physical participation. It is also a fact that a lot of contribution in terms of military equipment have been given to the Al-Shabaab fighters by the TNG soldiers deserting duties due to bad treatment by their seniors and total neglect (Gartenstein-Ross, 2009).
The threat ability posed by the Al-Shabaab fighters is great and should be considered as legitimate. On a local scene, the movement commands influence in over almost half of Somalia provinces (Australian National Security, 2009). The transitional government faces a direct threat and severely faces the probability of losing authority over the whole country. Though the movement has been more active in Somalia, the Nairobi bomb blast in Kenya showed the willingness of Al-Shabaab to target Israeli and western countries’ interests. The movement have also gone a head to dedicate a military regiment to liberate the Palestinian cause and Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (Handy, 2009). Al- Shabaab has also over the time claimed allegiance to the network of Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin laden and this shows that their territory may as well be used as a safe haven for terrorist activities for example the Al-Qaeda to recruit and train their would be terrorists (Moller, 2009). Ethiopia as a neighbouring country whose forces attacked the Al-Shabaab insurgency in 2006 are the first line of target for attacks as the leaders of the movement have laid bare their intentions to invade Ethiopia and expand their territories to their neighbours.
Due to the complex nature of the in Somali conflict, it is not effective to have standard counter terrorism procedures to combat the Al-Shabaab movement. The two main internal initiatives to help in thwarting the movement were the formation of the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter Terrorism(ARPCT) which is an initiative that gets its funding from the CIA and it comprises of a number of Somali TNG members, Ethiopian and Ugandan forces as they have the mandate to combat the movement. The TFG in its broader organization is a strategy of the US to counter terrorism as it tries to win the hearts of the locals to be popular and hitherto effectively have mandate over the Al-Shabaab.
In the wider perspective of Fn bid to control the movement, it has over the time launched air strikes at the alleged hide outs of the influential leaders of the Mujahedeen movement and suspected training facilities as this was witnessed recently when a member of the senior ranks of Mujaheden was killed in an American target air strike (Matt, 2009). The United States Government hand to combat the group is also cited in the creation of an elite force known as Kenyan elite Counter Terrorism Force which charged with the task of monitoring and conducting undercover operations in Somalia. The special force normally conducts joint training with the American Special Forces and also equips the Kenyan intelligence services and the navy (Hanson, 2009).
Parker (2009) asserts that, “The United States also acknowledged that it has been providing arms support to Somali’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia to help in combating the al-Shabaab insurgency”. Matt (2009) asserts that, ”this has also been seen as US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton pledged more material and financial support for TFG in her visit to Africa in August this year as she said that the US will not stop in her bid arms and moral support to the besieged Somali government.” The truth of the American hand in the Al-Shabab crisis is confirmed by a one time soldier, Mohamed who defected earlier this year from TNG saying that he witnessed chartered planes carrying loads of weapons being delivered to the TNG forces though in an interview with the journalists he declined to say exactly where from the planes originated but was of the opinion that it must be from a rich country (Matt, 2009). The US has also been accusing Eritrean government of providing logistical and material support in terms of weapons to the movement which though seems real but has vehemently been denied by Asmara.
Mbogo (2009) alleges that, “Even though the United States is working tirelessly hard to contain the movement’s operations in Somalia in terms of arms and moral support defectors such as the likes of Ahmed Hersi Mohamed, a 24-year-old Kenyan who was an al Shabaab fighter for a period of one and a half years views the policy adopted by the US as a real catalyst to enhance fighting in the volatile and fragile Somali nation.” According to Parker, (2009) “He alleges that the Islamist group has been buying weapons from the transitional federal government of Somali soldiers thus raising a great concern that the American weapons are getting into the wrong hands to wage further opposition to the besieged government”. Mohamed was traced by the Business Daily journalists to the sprawling suburb of East Leigh in Nairobi which is a Somali origin dominated settlement. According to Mbogo (2009) “He revealed to the media the details of key figures and the structure of organization of the group with good links to the world terror group, the al Qaeda and how the movement fight to have control of Somalia and also coordinated influx of arms to the group.” This interview also brought to light how the transitional federal government troops sell their ammunition to the movement fighters for just as little as Sh7, 600 equivalent to about $100 for an AK47 in order to help them finance their social and economic lifestyles. Most of the weapons especially guns are sold at the main open air markets in Mogadishu as more sophisticated weapons are clandestinely sold (United States Department of State, 2009).
The prevalence of corruption, immoral activities, drug trade and use by the Ethiopian and Somali military provides motivation for young men and women to enlist in the movement as more so the abuses in the Ogaden region contributed to an increase in the number of these people joining the movement in Somalia thus US is faced with a myriad problems as it has to control these vices and again the influx of the weapons not to reach the movement. This shows that without first controlling the vices, it is not viable to contain the movement’s spread thus experts warn that the international community can not do much to weaken the movement of Al Shabaab (Abisaid, 2009).
Al-Shabaab organization witnessed in the period 2009 witnessed some of its fighters that included assortment of leaders defecting to Transitional Federal Government of Ethiopia and one of the remarkable defections was of Sheikh Mohamed Abdullahi in early November who was the commander of Maymana brigade. The Sheikh also told VOA in Somali that the group’s executions and suicide attacks were unbearable though some denied Sheikh Pakistani’s association with the Al-Shabaab group.
The group’s quest to counter the western world influence in Somalia was also evident yesterday 3rd of December 2009 when a suicide bomber attacked Somali government officials in a hotel killing three Somali Transitional Government Ministers and other government officials (Al Jazeera). This has also been witnessed earlier this year by the attacks directed at the allied forces of Uganda and Burundi as it has led to the death of many soldiers as a result of suicide bombers allied to Al-Shabaab movement (Al jazeera agency).
Reference List
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