Al-Shabaa is a large scale terrorist organization that follows many of the same methods and goals seen in other terror groups.
Bombings are ba staple when the group acts upon their goals. Many of these attacks force communities to adopt ideologies that are foreign to the region. Additionally, out of fear, communities provide Al-Shabaab with funding and personnel to mitigate potential consequences from befalling the area.
Al-Shabaab is a large scale terrorist organization that follows many of the same methods and goals seen in other terror groups. They force communities to adopt religious ideas and comply with the beliefs of Islamic Law. By forcing compliance, Al-Shabaab gains millions in funding from extortion and exports. They also follow a similar structure in leadership and military operations to partner organizations like Al-Qaeda. Overall, the group is responsible for dozens of attacks and groups opposed to Al-Shabaab have a difficult time removing the terror organization from the area.
Al-Shabaab is a direct follower of Islamic Law and forces an extremist view of Sharia upon the citizens that fall under their control.
The group requires males to not shave their facial hair, amputates the hands of thieves, and stones women to death that are accused of adultery. As with most terror groups, religious extremism is the backbone of many of Al-Shabaab’s attacks. The group believes that only certain subjects should be taught, they ban listening to music and halts aid from humanitarian groups seeking to aid the region.
In the 90s, al-Itihad al-Islami (AIAI) was a rebel group that took part in the Somali Civil War.
After the war, a branch of the AIAI broke off and formed what is known today as Al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab is a militant terrorist group based in the Horn of Africa including Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Somalia. The unit made a formal pledge of allegiance to Al-Qaeda in 2012 and is considered an affiliate to Al-Qaeda in East Africa. However, informal ties to Al-Qaeda date back a few years earlier. It is believed that many of the current leaders within Al-Shabaab were developed while serving in the AIAI and that many of their skills came from the knowledge they gained during the Somali Civil War. Seen in several terror groups, conflict within the upper leadership of Al-Shabaab has created numerous rifts within the masses and forced smaller groups to break off. These smaller groups are still acting on many of the same ideologies as the larger organization but are no longer affiliated with Al-Shabaab.
Size
As with many terror groups, it is difficult to determine the exact number of personnel that belongs to Al-Shabaab. Multiple sources report the number to be in the mid to high thousands with some reporting up to 12,000 members. Most of the members are either forced into the group or recruited with incentives that draw in young males. The connection to Al-Qaeda also bolsters Al-Shabaab’s numbers by pulling supporters and members of the affiliated group with reports of approximately 300 of Al-Shabaab’s members being foreign.
Over the years, Al-Shabaab is credited with dozens of attacks that caused immeasurable damage, killed dozens, and wounded many more. In 2016 alone, Al-Shabaab is connected to the deaths of over 4,000 personnel as reported by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Some of the attacks include an attack on a university in Kenya, a raid on a military base, and a bombing in a restaurant during the 2010 World Cup.
Al-Shabaab has been attacked by local agencies in an attempt to remove them from power. “Al-Shabaab has reacted with gun, bomb, and grenade attacks against targets in Nairobi, Garissa, and other Kenya towns” (Anderson & McKnight, 2015). The terror group has been credited with several attacks in 2018. These attacks killed many and injured dozens more. Some of the events include a car bombing outside the presidential palace, an attempted raid at a military base, and an attack on a school that killed three teachers. Most of the attacks seem to point toward achieving the religious goals of the group. For example, the attack on the school could be related to Al-Shabaab’s goal of only allowing certain subjects to be taught and disapproving of other primary education.
Most terror groups use bombings as a primary means of achieving their goals. Bombs, being easy to create, are readily available and cause large scale damage that forces governments to respond either in force or bend to the terror group’s demands. Al-Shabaab has also been known to use suicide bombers to achieve many of its goals. “Religious terrorists utilize notions of martyrdom and self-sacrifice” (MacDonald, 2018). The group also employs several acts of extortion to gain funding and force communities to cooperate. By employing these acts, Al-Shabaab has forced several communities to adopt the ideologies of the terror group but these methods only form rocky governance. Many of the local residents despise the group and quickly revert to their old ideals once Al-Shabaab is forced out of the area.
Terror groups are experts in recruitment through the use of media outlets and propaganda to spread their methods and ideologies to the masses. In regard to media, Al-Shabaab uses multiple forms of social media, the most prominent being Twitter. The group has been known to post information regarding ongoing operations and during the Westgate shopping mall attack in Nairobi in 2013, Al-Shabaab’s “use of social media during the assault led to them being dubbed ‘Twitter terrorists'” (Molony, 2018). The terror groups have since used Twitter to broadcast additional operations and attack groups that oppose their ideals and goals.
Al-Shabaab is a capable organization on its own and able to recruit and train members using its own methods. Al-Qaeda, with their alligience to Al-Shabaab, sends members of its own group to train and instruct the African based terror group’s members in a variety of areas including assassination and bombing. This training has allowed Al-Shabaab to increase its effectiveness when carrying out several of its attacks.
Often, Al-Shabaab recruits members by force. The group has been known to kidnap boys from the areas they occupy and force them into working for the group as either soldiers or as reconnaissance assets. Though many of the young males were kidnapped and forced to work, several members were drawn to the group because of incentives offered to those that join. A captured child-soldier stated that he and his friends joined Al-Shabaab because they were given phones and monthly payments.
Though Al-Shabaab is a terrorist group, they perform many social services to the communities they occupy in an attempt to gain support. In Somalia, they provide construction services to rebuild damaged property and create homes for those in need. Additionally, Al-Shabaab redistributes collected taxes to those in need. On the surface, these acts seem kind and beneficial but it really only serves to make the terror group stronger and gain more followers.
By using social media outlets, Al-Shabaab can gain followers on a global scale. This is a major concern, especially for the United States as our citizens fall prey to the recruitment tactics of terror groups. “Al-Shabab has attracted dozens of American volunteers to fight in Somalia” (Felter, Masters, & Sergie, 2019). Unfortunately, not much can be done about controlling what is allowed on these social networks. Regulations can be placed upon sites such as Facebook and Twitter but there is still a measure of freedom that must be in place or else we start infringing on the rights of our citizens.
Al-Shabaab is its own terror groups but with close ties to Al-Qaeda, the group contains numerous members within the multiple branches of the organization and within the command structure. This terrorist group follows a strict hierarchy seen in other large scale groups like Al-Qaeda or ISIS. Within the hierarchy is the main commander in charge, the Emir known as Ahmad Umar or also called Abu Ubaidah. Below him, he employs additional commanders in charge of a variety of areas. These areas include a media relations group, as well as law and order, and the militant side of the terror group.
As with many terror organizations, Al-Shabaab has numerous methods for gaining the finances required to carry out their goals. One of the primary methods for funding has been charcoal trading. While the group controlled the port of Kismayo, they earned a projected $35-50 million each year from the charcoal exports alone. With the loss of Kismayo, Al-Shabaab has been forced to find other methods for gaining financial resources. The group has been known to invest in gold and there has also been a rise in sugar exporting to compensate for the loss of charcoal. Both of these methods are expected to bring in millions in resources on a monthly basis.
Al-Shabaab also uses more underhanded means of getting funding outside of using trade and exports. Additional taxes are imposed on goods coming from merchants which are then transferred to the terror group as the merchants pass through roadblocks set up by Al-Shabaab members. “Each roadblock along these paths earns al-Shabab ,000 a day extorting merchants” (“The Counter Extremism Project”, 2018).
Al-Shabaab is a deadly terrorist organization based in Africa. They are connected to dozens of terror attacks that have killed thousands over the past decade. The group uses a variety of tactics to force communities to give up funding and personnel to Al-Shabaab’s cause. Without the intervention of outside governments, Al-Shabaab will remain in power and continue to cause suffering for the foreseeable future.
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