http://www.eurasiareview.com/02022015-al-shabaab-emerging-dangerous-jihadist-organisation-africa-analysis/
02-02-2015
1, Analysis, Eurasia Review Terrorism Portal, Somalia
Al-Shabaab Emerging As Dangerous Jihadist Organisation In Africa – Analysis
February 2, 2015 Observer Research Foundation Leave a comment
By Observer Research Foundation
By Arushi Gupta*
Al-Shabaab, which is also known as “The Youth” or “Harakat al-Shabab
al-Mujahideen”, is emerging as a dangerous Jihadist organisation in
Africa, posing a strategic challenge to the United States besides
Somalia and its neighbours. It follows the ideology of global Jihadism
and maintains links with Al-Qaeda. With other Jihadist groups, it is
also focusing on establishing a governing apparatus to apply the
Islamic law and meet out the “God’s justice”.
In the country wrought with military dictatorship, civil war, regional
fragmentation, famines and the rise of Islamist groups, Al-Shabaab has
risen enormously in less than two years — from uncertainty to
international notoriety. So far, Al-Shabaab has carried out nearly 550
terrorist attacks, killing more than 1,600 and wounding more than
2,100. The US has designated this group as Foreign Terrorist
Organization.
Al-Shabaab’s operational reach covers the entire Horn of Africa while
its strong-holds are in southern and central Somalia. Its cities like
Mogadishu, Kismayo, Baidoa and Beledweyne have suffered the brunt of
Al-Shabaab’s attacks. It has also been active in Uganda, Kenya,
Tanzania, Ethiopia and Djibouti. According to a United Nations report,
Al-Shabaab’s military strength is approximately 5,000 fighters.
The origin of Al-Shabaab could be traced back to the two previous
Somali Islamist groups, The Islamist Union (Al-Ittihad al-Islamiya,
IU) and the Islamic Courts Union (Ittihad al-Mahakim al-Islamiya,
ICU). The group imposes its own harsh interpretations of Sharia law in
many rural regions and engages itself in combating against the Somali
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the African Union Mission to
Somalia (AMISOM).
Al-Shabaab’s terrorist activities seem to follow the other jihadist
groups in Africa like Boko Haram, Ansaru and Al-Qaeda’s North African
wing.
Al-Shabaab is linked with the most brutal terrorist group in Nigeria,
Boko Haram. It is suspected that Boko Haram receives financial support
from the group and that both groups share their training and fighters.
Ideology of both the groups is seemed to be embedded in radical
Salafism which believes that, “anyone who is not governed by what
Allah has revealed is among the transgressor.”
Al-Shabaab is fast emerging as a major security challenge in the Horn
of Africa, committed to the spread of global Jihadism. However, it has
been observed that the group does not follow any monolithic purpose,
and its objectives rather vary.
In December last year, the group had organised an attack in Mogadishu,
killing seven women. It also beheaded a soldier’s wife, leading to
revenge executions of women close to the Islamists. Al-Shabaab
militants also carried out an attack in northern Kenya, killing 36
quarry workers, mostly Christians.
A brutal organisation as it is, Al-Shabaab had, on February 22, 2009,
launched a suicide attack through vehicle-borne improvised explosive
device against an AMISOM base in Mogadishu. This attack killed 11
Burundian soldiers. Again the same year, on September 17, it launched
another suicide VBIED attack on the AMISOM headquarters, killing 21
soldiers, including its deputy commander. Forty soldiers were wounded.
In 2010, on July 11, it organised an attack in Uganda through two
suicide bombers. This killed more than 74 people. In 2011, Al-Shabaab
detonated a massive VBIED outside a compound housing government
offices in Mogadishu on October 4. The attack killed at least 65
people and wounded hundreds of others.
It was the same group which organised the attack on the Westgate mall
in Kenya in 2013. This hostage-barricade attack killed 67 people,
including the four attackers. The attackers were killed by the
security forces which launched a rescue operation.
Al-Shabaab has also claimed the responsibility for killing as many as
90 people in Kenya in a series of attacks in 2014. Between 2008 and
2012, 65 percent of all attacks in Kenya are attributed to Al-Shabaab.
The group has successfully recruited members of the Somali-American
diaspora in recent years. A number of radical volunteers from Ohio,
California, Virginia, New Jersey and New York have joined the group.
Al-Shabaab receives its major funding from the governments of Saudi
Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Qatar and Eritrea as well as from other
terrorist groups, state sponsors, kidnappings, extortions of local
businesses and so on.
Actions against Al-Shabaab
The US and the AMISOM have been trying to neutralise the activities of
this deadly group and other militant organisations. The US military
achieved a significant gain when it managed to kill Ahmed Abdi Godane,
Al-Shabaab’s undisputed leader, through an air-strike on September 1
near the group’s stronghold in Barawe. Godane was one of the US state
department’s most wanted men, and it had placed a bounty of $7m on his
head. After his killing, Somalia’s President issued a statement on
Friday urging militants to embrace peace.
In December, the Kenyan Anti-Terrorism Police Unit officers carried
out 500 extra-judicial killings, supported by intelligence provided by
Israel and the United Kingdom.
However, the group retaliated by targeting the AMISOM base in Somalia.
The attack on the Christmas day killed nine people, including three
African Union soldiers and a civilian.
Al-Shabaab on the decline?
Al-Shabaab is now said to be on the decline curve if one is to go by
the many interviews taken by the New York Times of former fighters.
The reason for the decline is said to be the increasing defections
along with sustained military pressure from forces under the African
Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM). Another reason is the absence of a
charismatic leader, especially after the death of Ahmed Abdi Godane.
However, the group still continues to be a dangerous one, though
around 21,500 armed personnel from Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti, Burundi
and Sierra Leone are battling the militants in Somalia. For Kenya too,
it still remains the greatest threat. More worrying is the fact that a
quarter of Al-Shabaab fighters are Kenyans. It is reported that money
remains the main issue forcing people from Kenya’s poorest
neighbourhood to join the militant organisation.
*The writer is a Research Assistant at Observer Research Foundation, Delhi
Observer Research Foundation
ORF was established on 5 September 1990 as a private, not for profit,
’think tank’ to influence public policy formulation. The Foundation
brought together, for the first time, leading Indian economists and
policymakers to present An Agenda for Economic Reforms in India. The
idea was to help develop a consensus in favour of economic reforms.
Received on Mon Feb 02 2015 - 15:31:48 EST