Al Shabaab (Terrorist Group in Somalia)

Al-Shabaab ("Youth" in Arabic) is a militant Islamist organization in Somalia, formally allied to al-Qaeda since 2012. The group is notorious for recruiting in Somali communities in the United States (US) and for reaching outside Somalia with terror attacks in Uganda and Kenya.

Al-Shabaab first gained attention in early 2007 by combating invading troops from Ethiopia. After Ethiopia withdrew in January 2009, al-Shabaab seized most of the capital, Mogadishu, and much of southern Somalia. Al-Shabaab became a focus of investigation in the US when it came to light that dozens of young Somalis living in Minneapolis had moved back to Somalia to fight for al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab made international headlines again with attacks in Uganda in July 2010, killing seventy-six people who were watching World Cup soccer on television, and in Kenya in September 2013, killing more than sixty at a shopping mall. The attacks were retaliation against these countries for contributing troops to an African Union force that drove al-Shabaab out of Mogadishu and the key southern port of Kismayo. Infighting thinned the ranks of senior al-Shabaab leaders in 2013, with one faction favoring a global jihadist agenda while the other was more clan-based and focused on Somalia. The jihadist faction, represented by Ahmed Abdi Godane (also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubair), prevailed. Godane was killed in September 2014 by a US drone strike. Nonetheless, in 2015, the organization carried out several brutal terrorist attacks, including one at a Kenyan university in which nearly 150 students were killed. Throughout the late 2010s and into the 2020s, Al-Shabaab only increased its numbers and expanded its area of attack.

Territory: Somalia

Religious affiliation or political orientation: Fundamentalist Sunni Islam

Founded: 2003

Stated goal: Establishment of an Islamist, Taliban-style government in Somalia

Alliances: Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Key Players

  • Ahmed Abdi Godane became leader of al-Shabaab in 2008 and turned the group toward al-Qaeda. He suppressed internal opposition by means of an elite unit called Amniyat, which spied on dissenting commanders and in some cases assassinated them. Godane's initial request to make al-Shabaab an affiliate of al-Qaeda was turned down by Osama bin Laden, who counseled the young jihadi to be less severe in applying Islamic law to obedient Muslims in Somalia. Ayman al-Zawahiri later accepted al-Shabaab into al-Qaeda. Godane was killed by a US drone strike in September 2014. Ahmad Diriye took over leadership after Godane’s death.

Key Events

  • 2003 — Core leaders organize al-Shabaab, although the group does not emerge as a separate fighting force until after the fall of the Council of Islamic Courts (CIC) in December 2006.
  • 2008 — Ahmed Abdi Godane becomes emir of al-Shabaab after Aden Hashi Ayro is killed by a US missile strike.
  • 2009 — Al-Shabaab controls much of Mogadishu and captures Kismayo, a major port and supply point for southern Somalia.
  • 2011 — Factional split in al-Shabaab becomes public when Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former CIC elder, preaches against Godane for excessive severity and for internationalizing Somalia's militant Muslim struggle. Al-Shabaab begins to lose territory as African Union troops launch a southern offensive in October.
  • February 2012 — Al-Shabaab announces affiliation with al-Qaeda.
  • September 2012 — Al-Shabaab fighters abandon Kismayo as African Union troops arrive.
  • June 2013 — Factional infighting leaves two senior al-Shabaab leaders dead. Aweys renounces al-Shabaab and surrenders to government authorities.
  • September 2013 — Disobedient commander Omar Hammami is assassinated on September 12. Al-Shabaab fighters attack Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi on September 21.
  • September 2014 — Leader Ahmed Abdi Godane is killed in a US drone strike. Ahmed Diriye (also known as Ahmad Umar Abu Ubaidah) is named his successor.
  • April 2015 — Al-Shabaab militants kill approximately 150 students at Garissa University College in Kenya.
  • Al-Shabaab militants kill approximately forty African Union soldiers at a base in Janaale, in southern Somalia.
  • 2015 — Al-Shabaab kills 148 people at Kenyan University.
  • 2019 — Al-Shabaab explodes bombs at Kenyan hotel.
  • 2020 — Signs of Al-Shabaab resurgence.
  • 2022 — Al-Shabaab becomes active in Ethiopia.
  • 2022 — Al-Shabaab commits bomb attack on education ministry in Mogadishu, killing 120.

Status

Godane's global jihadist faction gained full control of al-Shabaab after the June 2013 killing of two founding members, Ibrahim Haji Jama (al-Afghani) and Moalim Burhan. As a result, al-Shabaab increased its focus on the West as the enemy and has continued cross-border attacks in Kenya.

Within Somalia, al-Shabaab was no match for the approximately 20,000 troops of the African Union peacekeeping force in the early 2010s. However, it continued to exercise control over towns and key routes in the south. Al-Shabaab used al-Qaeda-style asymmetrical tactics, coordinating suicide bombers and gunmen against military targets in outlying areas and soft targets in cities, such as the courthouse and the United Nations compound in Mogadishu. In the 2010s and 2020s, Al-Shabaab experienced a resurgence.

In-Depth Description

Al-Shabaab had its origins in 2003 when young leaders within Al Ittihad al Islamiya — the main Islamist militant group in Somalia during the 1990s — decided to organize a new generation of fighters. The founders of Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (Striving Youth Movement) included Aden Hashi Ayro, the first emir; Ahmed Abdi Godane, who succeeded Ayro in 2008; Ibrahim Haji Jama (al-Afghani), assassinated in 2013 on Godane's orders; and Mukhtar Robow (Abu Mansur), who also broke with Godane but escaped to the protection of his clan. All had received training in jihadist camps in Afghanistan. Godane went to Afghanistan while he was in college, studying to be an accountant. He put his skills to work laundering money for Islamist groups.

By 2006, al-Shabaab was one of several militias supporting the Council of Islamic Courts (CIC), an umbrella organization that governed Mogadishu for six months before being driven out by Ethiopian troops at the end of the year. In 2007, al-Shabaab emerged as the lead force in a hit-and-run resistance against Ethiopian occupation. The US identified the group as a terrorist organization in February 2008 and killed Ayro with a missile strike on May 1, 2008. Investigations later in the year revealed that al-Shabaab had recruited dozens of young men from Somali immigrant communities in the US, particularly in Minneapolis. Recruiting in the US declined, but al-Shabaab also drew volunteers from Somali families living in Kenya, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Many of these recruits died in combat, some as suicide bombers.

2009-2011: Al-Shabaab in Power

Ethiopian troops withdrew from Somalia in 2009, allowing al-Shabaab to take control of most of Mogadishu and all of southern Somalia with a force of only about 7,000 fighters. Part of Mogadishu remained in the hands of the Transitional Federal Government, an entity recognized by the United States and the United Nations (UN) and protected by African Union troops from Burundi and Uganda. Al-Shabaab retaliated against Uganda with a terrorist attack in Kampala in July 2010. Bombs killed seventy-four people at two sites — one a rugby club and the other a nightclub — as they watched the televised final match of soccer's World Cup. In a statement claiming responsibility, al-Shabaab threatened more violence unless Uganda withdrew its troops from Mogadishu.

Conditions were socially and economically harsh during nearly three years of government by al-Shabaab. The group enforced a severe brand of sharia (Islamic law) and halted imports from countries with links to the West, including food imports. A drought in East Africa led to famine in 2011 and 2012 in parts of southern Somalia. Godane prohibited the delivery of food aid by the UN and other relief agencies. He rescinded the ban later in 2011 but came under heavy criticism by other leaders within al-Shabaab, notably Hassan Dahir Aweys, who had mentored al-Shabaab's first emir and was regarded as an elder statesman among radical Islamists in Somalia. After this dispute, two factions emerged: one, represented by Aweys, favored a clan-based political approach focused on Somalia; the other faction, represented by Godane, insisted on aligning with the international jihadist movement.

Al-Shabaab made connections with militant groups across Africa. In June 2011, Nigeria's ultra-violent Boko Haram announced that a team of its fighters had returned from training at an al-Shabaab camp in Somalia. Al-Shabaab sent fighters to southern Libya, as that region became a haven for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). In Mali, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa began to use tactics similar to al-Shabaab's, combining suicide bombers with snipers to maximize the time they could hold off security forces. These ties to al-Qaeda affiliates notwithstanding, al-Shabaab did not itself become an al-Qaeda affiliate until 2012. Documents recovered after the assassination of Osama bin Laden showed that Godane had requested membership and been turned down. Bin Laden advised Godane to be less severe with obedient Muslims. Ayman Zawahiri, bin Laden's successor, accepted Godane's oath of obedience, and al-Shabaab officially became an al-Qaeda franchise.

2011-2013: Return to Insurgency

In October 2011, Kenyan troops crossed the border into southern Somalia, joining the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to take control of southern Somalia on behalf of the Transitional Federal Government. Al-Shabaab had already made a tactical withdrawal from Mogadishu in July 2011. AMISOM forces took Baidoa and major towns in the south almost without opposition. In October 2013, AMISOM occupied Kismayo, the country's second-largest port and al-Shabaab's last major stronghold.

Al-Shabaab continued to operate in outlying areas. It collected taxes in towns beyond AMISOM's immediate reach and at checkpoints along highways. It also raised money and recruited through Islamic charities in Kenya, offering good pay to top prospects. Some al-Shabaab fighters -- estimated at about 1,000 -- moved north to Puntland province, joining a friendly militia there and then taking it over. This group may have established new supply lines for units in the south. In April 2013, al-Shabaab carried out a large-scale terrorist attack in Mogadishu at the courthouse. As a vehicle bomb exploded at the entrance, gunmen stormed the complex and shot as many people as possible, detonating suicide bomb vests when they ran out of ammunition. In June, the group launched a similar attack on the UN compound in Mogadishu.

As terrorist attacks by al-Shabaab intensified in 2013, Godane took steps to tighten his control of the organization. The dissension that first arose in 2011 flared up again when Mukhtar Robow, a regional commander and cofounder of al-Shabaab, published an online letter criticizing Godane for allowing al-Qaeda agents to turn the group's operations toward global jihadist objectives and away from establishing an Islamic government in Somalia. Other leaders supported Robow's complaint, including elder statesman Hassan Dahir Aweys and al-Shabaab cofounder Ibrahim Haji Jama. On June 20, 2013 — the same day as the attack on the UN compound in Mogadishu — Godane's intelligence unit, Amniyat, arrested and executed Jama and another leader, Moalim Burhan. Aweys fled and surrendered to the government on June 30. On September 4, Amniyat ambushed and killed another prominent figure who had broken with Godane, Omar Hammami, also known as Abu Mansoor al-Amriki. Born and raised in Alabama, Hammami joined al-Shabaab in 2006 and gained notoriety for making idealistic, rap-based recruitment videos.

Attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi

An al-Shabaab attack on a shopping mall in Kenya on September 21, 2013, resulted in sixty-seven deaths, counting five attackers. A team of at least six fighters entered Nairobi's Westgate mall, collected weapons from a storefront that had been rented in advance, and began shooting. One of the fighters, later identified as a Somali woman, killed around thirty people with a mounted machine gun. The fighters took hostages and held off security forces for four days. The attackers tortured their captives and mutilated dead bodies. The hostage-takers were killed when a roof collapsed. One of the attackers, seen on security cameras, changed clothes and escaped into the crowd fleeing the mall. In a statement taking responsibility for the attack, al-Shabaab said it was retaliation for Kenya's participation in AMISOM. The Westgate mall attack, though it came as a shock in world news, was a bloody climax in a campaign of violence al-Shabaab had been running for two years. During 2011-2012, the US State Department counted seventeen attacks in Kenya that killed forty-eight people.

In 2014, after Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed, Ahmed Diriye became the leader of Al-Shabaab. In April 2015, the US State Department labeled Diriye a terrorist and froze any assets he may have had under US jurisdiction. Relatively small contingents of Al-Shabaab have continued to wreak havoc in Somalia and Kenya, with several terrorist attacks in 2015 alone. Throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s, Al-Shabaab only increased in number and in the intensity of their attacks, expanding into Kenya and Ethiopia. In 2022, Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for an attack on the education ministry in Mogadishu, which killed 120 people. Al-Shabaab fighters were believed to number over 10,000.

Bibliography

Agbiboa, D. (2015). Shifting the Battleground: The Transformation of Al-Shabab and the Growing Influence of Al-Qaeda in East Africa and the Horn. Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies, 42(2), 177-194.

"Al Shabaab's Hideout in Northern Somalia." Stratfor Analysis (February 2013) p. 1. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tsh&AN=87618257&site=ehost-live

Anderson, D. M., & McKnight, J. (2015). Kenya at war: Al-Shabaab and its enemies in Eastern Africa. African Affairs, 114(454), 1-27.

Wachira, Charles. "After Somalia, Kenya Faces War Within." World Politics Review 19446284 (December 11, 2012) p. 7. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tsh&AN=84403041&site=ehost-live

Dabbs, Brian. "Kismayo Offensive." World Politics Review 19446284 (August 21, 2012) p. 3. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tsh&AN=79276819&site=ehost-live

Dagne, Ted. Somalia: Current Conditions and Prospects for a Lasting Peace. Congressional Research Service Report. August 31, 2011. 37 p. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tsh&AN=66251428&site=ehost-live

National Counterterrorism Center. (n.d.). Al-Shbaab. National Counterterrorism Center Groups. Retrieved Oct. 13, 2023, from https://www.dni.gov/nctc/groups/al‗shabaab.html

"Somalia: Complex Attack on Mogadishu Courthouse." Stratfor Analysis (April 2013) p. 67. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tsh&AN=89052595&site=ehost-live

Timeline: Al-Shabaab in East Africa. (2023). Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved Oct. 13, 2023, from https://www.cfr.org/timeline/al-shabaab-east-africa