MOGADISHU, Somalia –In one of his assessments before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, General Stephen Townsend, commander of the US Africa Command, called Al-Shabaab militants “dangerous” and “destructive” in Africa. from the East, adding that “we must fight them and degrade them”.
The United States has been a major partner in the fight against Al-Shabaab, teaming up with African Union mission forces [AMISOM] and other stakeholders in the training and equipping of the Somali army, in addition to providing aerial surveillance of combat troops.
Prior to Somalia’s official exit on January 15, the U.S. Africa Command helped launch airstrikes in addition to training Danab’s special forces. All of this was strategically aimed at eliminating the militants, who control large swathes of rural areas in central and southern Somalia.
Sadly, the war against the militants appears far from over, with the group relying on extremely huge ransom proceeds from its targets in addition to local income collected in several cities across the Horn of Africa nation. .
In fact, ex-President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, in a Twitter Space conversation hosted by Garowe Online, admitted that the current administration of Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo had done very little to “choke” activists.
According to Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, “Over the past four years, Al-Shabaab has had the ability to collect taxes and extort business. During my tenure, Al-Shabaab was on the run. The group controls parts of the port of Mogadishu.
Reports released by various intelligence sources, however, revealed that Al-Shabaab was grappling with internal feuds and dwindling financial fortunes, allowing security forces to crush them both in Somalia and across the country. the border.
Cash crunch, Al-Shabaab’s best antidote
With the group now struggling to generate income to pay fighters and buy weapons, Al-Shabaab is now resorting to blackmail from countries to obtain ransom in exchange for the release of prisoners.
Terrorists have long used ransoms to increase their financial capacity to recruit and maintain their activities, argues security analyst Mike Kinja, in his in-depth article on the Sunday Nation, where Kenya receives special mention for crippling Al -Shabaab.
“The terrorist group suffered a huge loss of key financiers after Kenyan multi-agency security teams crippled their jihadist activities in the country and cut off sources of funds, rendering them powerless. He therefore quickly adopted the modus operandi of terrorist groups. kidnappings for ransom in Syria and Iraq, ”he notes.
According to Kinja, providing money or goods to terrorists fuels their activity and encourages kidnappings for ransom. This trend has been used successfully by Al-Shabaab, but Kenya appears to have changed course, refusing to “negotiate” with the militants.
The latest blackmail victim from the Al Qaeda affiliate is Cuba. Two years after the kidnapping in Mandera of Cuban doctors Landy Rodriquez Hernandez and Assel Herrera Correa in Somalia, Al-Shabaab is still “auctioning them off” in Havana.
Last year, Silvia Romano, an Italian humanitarian kidnapped on Kenyan soil, was rescued by the Italian foreign intelligence services in collaboration with Turkish and Somali officers. But the payment is responsible for the wave of kidnappings of foreigners, especially on the Kenyan coast and on the long Kenya-Somalia border.
In Somalia, Al-Shabaab is a parallel “government” with structures, hierarchy and dominant political interests in the most volatile nation in the Horn of Africa. But although eager to sponsor some of his ranks in the political class, his financial situation does not allow it. With hotly contested elections and elective seats sold to the highest bidder, he is quick to earn money to fill his coffers, he adds.
“The insurgency is thriving due to lack of political goodwill after incumbent President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo broke his campaign pledge to rid the war-torn country of Al-Shabaab. Politicians continue to sabotage his recovery from decades of civil war and political turmoil, ”he argues. Kinja
The electoral stalemate emboldened the terrorist group, indirectly allowing it to infiltrate politics. Unfortunately, the political issues driving the instability barely receive attention as a counterterrorism agenda, he says.
The current political temperature has given the terrorist group the green light to exercise even more, so much so that it is seeking funds to sponsor its own candidates, including sympathizers, in parliament and other positions of authority. .
Al-Shabaab is demanding ransom from individuals and nations in order to fund its political ambitions. It is only prudent for the world to ignore this archaic tactic and explore other ways to save their citizens without falling into the shallow Al-Shabaab trap.
With a reduced ransom for victims, cash-strapped Al-Shabaab militants would certainly find it difficult to operate, reducing recruitment that targets vulnerable youth. The group usually gives allowances to young people as ‘gifts’ encouraging them to join.
Al-Shabaab Defects
But one key area that has gone unused is the no-go strategy which helps reduce the capacity of the group. Defections have long been used in Somalia, in particular by the Somali national army [SNA] but the strategy had suffered a lot in recent weeks.
Former President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud believes the arrest of Al-Shabaab deputy leader Mukhtar Robow in 2018 “scared” activists to defect. The former leader was arrested moments after he dumped the group.
According to him, the 2018 arrest made it difficult for senior al-Shabaab leaders to defect, calling his detention “kidnapping for political ends”. Robow was arrested in December 2018, had been under house arrest since June 2019.
Prior to his arrest, Robow defected from Al-Shabaab where he held the post of deputy chief and announced his candidacy for the presidential elections in the Southwest. The government blocked my arrest through Ethiopian troops, which led to clashes that left 11 people dead.
“Mukhtar Robow was mistreated and his case was wrongly handled, preventing key Al-Shabaab members from surrounding him. He had been kidnapped,” said Hassan Sheikh, one of the main candidates for the election. presidency in Somalia.
Al-Shabaab continues to control huge sections of central and southern Somalia, making it difficult for the government to restore order and stability in Somalia. The militants targeted innocent civilians and the security forces in their cowardly attacks.
With a clear no-go and ransom-banned policy, Kinja notes, it will be totally impossible for the group to continue to expand its territories. It was finances that kept Al Shabaab running and any deliberate effort to turn off the taps means an imminent collapse of the once powerful group.
AXADLETM
