Somalia vows to defeat Al-Shabaab as war intensifies
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Staff reporter GAROWE ONLINE
- Posted On 05-04-2023, 07:52AM
MOGADISHU, Somalia - President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says Somalia will defeat Al-Shabaab militants just as the country enters the second phase of operations against the group which has caused havoc in the country for the last 16 years, targeting innocent civilians and members of the military who are instrumental in fostering security.
For the last seven months, Al-Shabaab militants have been on the receiving end following an operation waged by the Somali National Army, the US Africa Command, African Union Transition Mission in Somalia [ATMIS] and local militia, who have managed to liberate several strategic towns.
Territorial gains, mostly in central Somalia, have been backed by a financial crackdown that has led to the freezing of hundreds of bank and mobile money accounts, holding a “couple of million dollars” combined, and a drive to convince Somali clerics to condemn al-Shabaab as “anti-Islamic”.
“Two things are there to defeat al-Shabaab: one is military, another is ideological,” Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told the Financial Times in an exclusive interview from the presidential compound in the capital Mogadishu. “The ideological war will continue for some time but, in the military one, I believe we’ll defeat them.”
The military teams have managed to gain sufficient ground in the fight against Al-Shabaab, with Shabelle and Hiiraan regions being the target of the army. In Galgaduud, Al-Shabaab militants have also lost significant territories in recent weeks according to the government of Somalia.
This disaster has partly driven what one diplomat in Mogadishu called the “insurgency within an insurgency”, as communities once under al-Shabaab’s control rise up against them, Financial Times report. The Somali government has been helped by growing discontent with the jihadis’ use of extortion and forced recruitment, which has turned much of the population against them.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has been instrumental in waging the war against Al-Shabaab as part of his pre-election pledges where he promised to end the group's dominance. The Al-Shabaab has been waging retaliatory attacks in response, targeting innocent civilians.
“We’ve linked together our forces and the community to liberate these areas,” said Sheikh Mohamud.
Analysts agreed that the militants had been put on the back foot. Omar Mahmood, a senior Somalia analyst at the Crisis Group think-tank, said the offensive had “reversed some of al-Shabaab’s gains of the past few years, forcing the militants out of several areas, including some important towns. Yet big challenges remain.”
The next, more difficult, phase will seek to reconquer territory in Jubaland and South West state, the militants’ heartland. “Al-Shabaab continues to mount resistance in parts of central Somalia and fighting al-Shabaab in its southern strongholds will probably be a tougher slog,” Mahamud said.
Al-Shabaab, which combines a Salafi-jihadist and Somali nationalist ideology, came together in about 2006 during an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. It has become synonymous with suicide bombings and gruesome attacks, including the 2013 raid on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi.
The US has called it “the largest and most deadly al-Qaeda network in the world”, saying that it provided the terror group’s central command with “tens of millions of dollars”. The US Africa Command estimated there were 5,000-10,000 al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia before this offensive. “But they’ve taken a lot of casualties recently,” said a Somali defence official.
GAROWE ONLINE
