An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir May 2015 www.dfmagazine.ie 22 | by PAUL O'BRIEN Blood on S omalia has in recent decades been a country in turmoil. Famine, religious strife, the failure of successive govern- ments and the emergence of warlords have led to the rise of a number of insurgent groups in the region. One of these, Al-Shabaab (Arabic for 'the youth'), has emerged in recent years and has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against the UN-backed government in Somalia, and also against targets in neighbouring Kenya. Formed as part of the radical youth wing of Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts, which once controlled Mogadishu, So- malia's capital, it was forcibly removed from the city in 2006 by the Somali Transitional Federal Government and its allies. The group began waging jihad (holy war) against those it considered enemies of Islam. Al-Shabaab advocates the Sau- di-inspired Wahhabi version of Islam, while most of the population of Somalia are Sufis. It has imposed a strict version of sharia law in areas under its control, including the stoning to death of women accused of adultery and the amputating of limbs of those suspected of breaking the law. The organisation's senior positions are dominated by Afghanistan- and Iraq-trained Somalis and foreign fighters. The group's leadership has undergone a number of changes in recent years with many commanders having been killed in drone strikes or imprisoned. With this continual change in its command structure, the group has been weakened but is still active in certain areas. The majority of its rank-and-file members are locals, many of them recruited by force and taken from their families. Al-Shabaab's forces are estimated as numbering from 4,000 to 6,000 and a breakdown in their former alliance with Al-Qaeda in recent years has weakened the insurgents' operational capacity. Kenyan security forces have also launched at- tacks into Somali territory, targeting Al-Shabaab personnel and camps, with some successes. In December 2009, The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Eritrea, accusing the Horn of Africa the Sun Soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) drive their APC past the scene of a suicide car explosion in front of the SYL Hotel, Mogadishu - January 2015. © Reuters/Feisal Omar

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