National Geographic says nine in 10 of us can’t locate Iraq on a map.
That means the thousands of hours we, the 18 to 24 set, spend consuming media each year has resulted in little more than wasted time and a few “Likes.”
If that’s you, scanning an Atlas with a frantic index finger (hint: Iraq is in Asia), you’ve come to the right place.
Foreign policy aficionado Ben Duong will decipher media-babble, ignore the talking heads and give you the information and facts about all the latest geopolitical hoopla dominating the news cycle this week, bringing you one step further to being the informed adult you oughta be.
Welcome to Ben Meets World.
On April 2, five gunmen from the al-Shabaab militant group stormed Garissa University in Kenya. They killed the two guards to start the massacre that left 147 dead and at least 80 wounded. The gunmen managed to take several Christians hostage, freeing only Muslim students. They managed to hole up in a dormitory before Kenyan soldiers cornered the attackers, who then detonated suicide vests. Only one gunman was captured alive.
The Garissa Massacre was a horrible bloodbath that left so many innocent dead. But this attack by al-Shabaab was just another in a long series of attack in Kenya.
Via: Foreign Policy Mag
While the media is so intent on focusing on ISIS over in the Middle East, atrocities committed by African militants are often glossed over.
Who makes up al-Shabaab? What do they want? And what is a Somali-based group doing in Kenya? Why does stopping them matter to the US?
Who are al-Shabaab?
When people think of Somalia, they usually think of modern pirates in speed boats or the famous military action film, “Black Hawk Down.” The few other things going on Somalia seem to be far from Americans’ minds, and the country is often used as the model failed state (unfortunately for Somalis), with the central government having collapsed after two decades of civil war. But one of these few other things happens to be al-Shabaab.
Via: BBC International
Al-Shabaab means “The Youth” in Arabic, and they originally were a radical militant youth group belonging to Somalia’s now-defunct Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which took control of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu and large portions of Somalia about a decade ago. As the ICU tried to set up an Islamic rule over Somalia, Ethiopia (a mostly Christian country) felt threatened and soon invaded Somalia to oust the ICU. In 2007, Ethiopia succeeded. The country pushed the ICU out, and the ICU fell apart and left for surrounding countries. Al-Shabaab however, remained and fled into the south of Somalia.
Radicalized by Ethiopia’s invasion, al-Shabaab soon started to take up Islamist-nationalist fighters and established an alliance with al-Qaeda. By 2008, the U.S. State Department designated them a terrorist organization, a label they took to heart in 2010 when they bombed the World Cup in Kampala, Uganda. That began a long campaign of terror waged by al-Shabaab, requiring the African Union to beef up its troop deployments into Somalia to prop up the weak transitional government.
For a long period of time, al-Shabaab was regarded with legitimacy in southern Somalia. Their offer of security was a sharp contrast to the anarchy that continues to grip most of Somalia. A turning point came in 2011 when al-Shabaab rejected Western aid for a devastating drought and famine that ravaged Somalia at the time. Al-Shabaab lost much of the populace’s favor and most of the towns and cities they helped in the following years.
Recently, al-Shabaab has been escalating their attacks as they lose more and more territory to the pro-government Somali and African Union forces. Having lost 80 percent of the land they dominated, al-Shabaab is desperate to reassert control.
To that effect, they have launched retaliatory attacks on Kenya, after Kenya deployed troops into Somalia to wipe out al-Shabaab strongholds. In 2013, they claimed responsibility for the Nairobi Westgate shopping center massacre, where their gunmen slaughtered 68 people and wounded hundreds more. They have bombed several places, and have a reputation for seeking out Christians to kill.
Via: Foreign Policy Mag
What do they want?
The first thing you need to understand is the composition of al-Shabaab. When they radicalized in 2007, they started to accept foreign militant recruits, most of whom came from international jihadist groups. These foreign militants quickly established themselves in the top tier of al-Shabaab, displacing the larger nationalist majority of clan leaders and fighters. The nationalist faction wishes to reassert dominance over Somalia, but the foreign militants seek to establish a wider Islamist rule.
Before 2013, al-Shabaab limited their attacks to mostly within Somalia. A supposed schism between the nationalists and the foreign militants changed the scope of their attacks. Their attacks on the Nairobi Westgate Mall in 2013 and on Garissa University a week ago illustrate a new mission to seek revenge against other countries meddling in Somalia. There also appears to be a trend of escalation, with Kenya on one side and al-Shabaab on the other, both seeking retaliation after the other attacks.
Al-Shabaab has established ties with Boko Haram in Nigeria and Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and there are reports of coordination amongst these groups. With Boko Haram pledging allegiance to ISIS, there is a strong possibility for al-Shabaab to do the same. If Kenya and the African Union forces can’t halt al-Shabaab, ISIS’ idea of a caliphate may come to East Africa.
Via: PS Mag
Why Should the U.S. Care?
Al-Shabaab is like most any other Islamic militant group, but their similarities to Boko Haram are what set them apart.
Specifically, they get a lot of bang for their buck. Both Boko Haram and al-Shabaab operate on very low funds, certainly nowhere near what ISIS has from kidnappings, pillaged oil fields and sacked banks.
With most of their previously held cities and towns recaptured by the African Union, al-Shabaab has few sources of revenue. They have no dedicated transportation fleet, no ports, no drug trade money and no arms trade. Despite this, they manage to plan and execute massacres and attacks, and their ability to wreak chaos appears unparalleled in Africa. Al-Shabaab is able to launch attacks across Somalia’s border with the sort of impunity that is unknown to other Islamist groups in Africa.
This is why al-Shabaab poses an even great threat than Boko Haram. Where Boko Haram appears locked mostly in Nigeria, al-Shabaab has demonstrated that it can strike across Eastern Africa with ease, having carried out attacks in Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. They control no cities or towns and yet they can still carry out such violent attacks.
Via: The Clarion Project
Al-Shabaab poses a huge threat to East African regional stability. Further attacks in Kenya, often cited as a leader in development and stability in Africa, poses the possibility for chaos in Kenya and consequently the region.
The U.S. needs to insure efforts to prevent al-Shabaab from snowballing its momentum.
Out of all the Islamist militant groups in Africa, al-Shabaab has demonstrated the most extensive regional reach. If al-Shabaab gains new revenues and a surge in recruits, the U.S. can expect to see several fragile African states descending into war and collapsing as al-Shabaab launches even bigger assaults.
My Opinion
The U.S. has been trying to deal with al-Shabaab. We have continued drone strikes to eliminate its leadership, they have authorized the U.S. Treasury Department to sanction Somalia, where they are based, and several banks have banned remittances sent to Somalia from the U.S., all in order to cripple its leadership and to starve it further of funds.
The problem with this is that al-Shabaab has demonstrated that it is more than capable of carrying on through all those deterrent efforts by the U.S., as well as by the African Union. In fact, drone strikes appear to be giving the group some much craved legitimacy by putting the group on the same level as any other global militant group like ISIS or the Taliban. Cutting off remittances does little more than starve normal Somalians of much needed cash flow in an already defunct country.
Al-Shabaab will carry on regardless.
Via: CCTV Africa
What the U.S. needs to do is push for an overhaul of Kenya’s security forces, as well as an overhaul of the African Union’s efforts in Somalia.
Most efforts so far have just led to perpetuation of al-Shabaab, and continued marginalization of Muslims and Somalians by regional governments and forces only serves to create more recruits to feed al-Shabaab. Political leaders need to address the underlying issues, like why people even decide to support a group like al-Shabaab, rather than trying squash a hydra that keeps on growing.
Africa is not a complete hellhole like we are led to believe. But that does not mean that countries like the U.S. should sit idly by while militant groups like al-Shabaab and Boko Haram surge into power, nor does it mean the U.S. should let regional powers attempt to address the problem by taking a hammer to a large ant pile while helping them to do so.
This is a problem that must be addressed at its core or soon we will see a new ISIS of Africa plunge the region into ruin and war.
Feature photo courtesy of: The Guardian
