Shabaab's new leader a ruthless hardliner - sources
2014-09-07 15:43
Nairobi - The new leader of Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab rebels is
thought to be a devout and ruthless hardliner and one of the most trusted
lieutenants of the group's late chief, experts said on Sunday.
The Shabaab acknowledged in a statement on Saturday that former leader Ahmed
Abdi Godane had died in a US air strike on Monday. The group named Ahmad
Umar, also known as Abu Ubaidah, as its new head, while also stating it
remained a part of al-Qaeda's global Islamist network.
Very little is known about Abu Ubaidah, and a senior Shabaab official only
described him as having been very close to Godane, a hardliner who had
overseen the group's transformation from local insurgency to major regional
guerilla threat.
"Avenging the death of our scholars and leaders is a binding obligation on
our shoulders that we will never relinquish nor forget no matter how long it
takes," the Shabaab statement said.
"By the permission of Allah, you will surely taste the bitter consequences
of your actions," it added, while also renewing a pledge of allegiance to
al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's successor.
Sources close to the Shabaab said Abu Ubaidah was thought to have been
involved in a major internal purge that took place last year, when Godane
eliminated several key rivals including a commander who had been tipped as a
potential successor.
Abu Ubaidah is also thought to have had a hand in the last year's killing of
Alabama-born Omar Hammami - better known as Al-Amriki or "the American" -
who was one of the most prominent foreigners fighting in Somalia but who
fell out with Godane.
Clan dynamics
According to Roland Marchal a researcher at France's CNRS, it is unlikely
that the group managed to assemble all its top commanders to discuss the
succession because of fears of further air strikes.
"This signifies that not everybody was consulted. It is possible that Abu
Ubaidah will not be there for a long period, just enough time for them to
reorganise themselves. It is not out of the question that he is just an
interim leader," Marchal said.
According to an intelligence source, Abu Ubaidah is believed to have played
a role in the Shabaab's most shadowy and feared wing, the clandestine
internal secret service known as "Amniyat", which Godane set up to maintain
discipline and expose rivals and informers.
The source said the new leader is thought to be in his early 40s and from
the southern port town of Kismayo, which is currently held by Kenyan troops
fighting with the African Union's Amisom force. He also once served as the
Shabaab's governor in the Bay and Bakool region.
But Marchal said Abu Ubaidah was also from a minority Somali clan - which
could cause tensions related to the complex clan dynamics that are still at
play beneath the Shabaab's veneer of being an Islamist organisation.
"The Shabaab is also an organisation and not just one leader. Abu Ubaidah is
not known as someone who deals with the political economy of the
organisation," including sources of revenue that fund its army estimated to
number 5 000 to 7 000 fighters, Marchal said.
Disinformation cannot be ruled out, another intelligence source said,
explaining that the pressure of constant surveillance and drone strikes
means the Shabaab may even have named a "simple figurehead", a "ghost" or
"given a pseudonym" as a deliberate tactic to protect their real hierarchy.
Godane himself took over the leadership of the Shabaab in 2008 after then
military leader Adan Hashi Ayro was killed by a US missile attack.