He defected from the terror group after violently clashing with them in August The Somali government initially hailed his defection but later arrested him to stop him from running for president of the Southwest region back in , when it held its last leadership election. Speaking from Mogadishu, where he has been under house arrest since , Abu Mansour told VOA Somali that his detention was politically motivated.
His comments, made last Thursday, come as Somalia is in the middle of elections to choose lawmakers for parliament's lower and upper chambers. The lawmakers from the Lower House and 54 senators from the Upper House will choose a national president at the end of the current election process. Southwest is one of five regions that plays a major role in the election of lawmakers who choose the head of state.
President Farmaajo is running for reelection and competing against more than a dozen people who have declared their candidacy, including two former presidents. Abu Mansour says he is not giving up on running for political office despite being in detention for almost three years.
VOA reached out to the presidential palace and the leaders of Southwest State, but they have not responded to requests for comment. The government defended its decision to block his political aspirations. The internal security ministry said Abu Mansour did not meet all the preconditions for running for office.
Analysts have indicated that U. In late , Al Shabaab leader Ahmad Umar was bedridden due to a prolonged illness, triggering a leadership crisis within Al Shabaab. It is unclear when his health problems began; as of June , he is believed to be near death. Fiidow has experience networking with clan elders and has served in leadership roles in both finance and regional operations.
Curran, Cody. Page, Jacqueline. Harnisch, Christopher. Masters, Jonathan, and Mohammed Aly Sergie. July Wise, Rob.
Houreld, Katharine. Lahoud, Nelly. Washington, D. Bryden, Matt. June The two also conflicted because Aweys argued for a focus on nationalist goals rather than global jihad. Aweys fled the country after Ethiopian forces invaded in , leaving Ayro to run Al Shabaab without oversight. Aweys reportedly then rejoined Al Shabaab in some capacity.
He was arrested by the Somali government in June , at which time he was widely referred to as an Al Shabaab leader. In , Aweys was transferred from prison to house arrest. Directed by Ayro, Al Shabaab conducted brutal attacks that drew condemnation from local and international communities as well as much of the ICU leadership. Ayro argued for connecting the Somali struggle to a global jihadist agenda.
He began shifting Al Shabaab toward that agenda after the group became independent from the ICU, which disbanded in Ayro was killed in a U. Under his leadership, Al Shabaab strengthened its ties to Al Qaeda. The group pledged its allegiance to Al Qaeda in , though this pledge was not formally accepted by Al Qaeda until Godane was killed in a U. There is little available information about Umar. Mukhtar Robow unknown to : Formerly a founder, spokesman, and second-in-command of Al Shabaab, Robow defected in and now pledges his loyalty to the Somali federal government.
In , he announced his candidacy for a regional presidency. The U. Hussein Ali Fiidow unknown to present : Currently a financial administrator for Al Shabaab, Fiidow has generally avoided public appearances. Analysts have identified him as the most likely successor to Umar. According to Kenyan intelligence reports, he allegedly attempted to stage a coup in early Roggio, Bill. Chothia, Farouk. International Business Times, 8 Sept.
Department of State. Accessed 12 November Al Shabaab has allegedly received funds and training from Al Qaeda-linked foreign jihadists. In August , for example, fourteen Americans were indicted for lending material support to and fundraising for Al Shabaab. Inside Somalia, Al Shabaab has stolen equipment from various organizations.
It has looted private media stations, for example, to acquire media equipment and to conduct its own broadcasts. Militants ordered office personnel to leave and confiscated their equipment. Before , Al Shabaab militants controlled Kismayo, an important port city from which the group received massive profits in charcoal exports. However, in , Al Shabaab was forced out of Kismayo and several other major cities.
As a result, the group lost key sources of revenue. In the territories that it does control, Al Shabaab has collected protection fees and taxes from businesses and other organizations.
Other sources of revenue for Al Shabaab have included profits from the ivory and sugar trades. TIME, 26 Aug. Miller, Greg. Caulderwood, Kathleen. Disclaimer : This is a partial list of where the militant organization has bases and where it operates. This does not include information on where the group conducts major attacks or has external influences. While Al Shabaab no longer exercises direct control over Mogadishu, it frequently conducts attacks in the city.
However, most of this land was lost by the end of The group was also implicated in a failed bombing in Ethiopia. Al Shabaab's primary goal is to topple the Somali government and establish an Islamic emirate within the country guided by a strict reading of Shariah law.
This entry in Examining Extremism provides an overview of the group, its strategy and tactics, and its efforts to balance the often-competing goals of establishing an al Shabaab-led government in Somalia and advancing the global al Qaeda brand.
East Africa has served as a global Salafi-jihadist crossroads for decades. Somalis who joined the Afghan mujahideen in the s returned home and germinated the ideological and organizational seeds that grew into al Shabaab. Islamist militant and insurgent groups have been active in Somalia since the s. The ICU was a coalition of Somali Islamic courts that ultimately seized control of Mogadishu, supplanting more than a decade of warlord control of the city.
In , Godane was killed in a U. Since that time, al Shabaab has continued to carry out high-profile attacks and wage a sustained insurgency, exerting various levels of territorial control throughout Somalia.
As of , al Shabaab is capable of projecting military power against the Somali state and international forces. In August , fighters affiliated with the group stormed a military facility and captured the town of Amara in central Somalia—a town which the Somali army had captured from al Shaabab earlier in the month.
These frequent clashes and territorial exchanges demonstrate al Shabaab's continued capacity to wage protracted insurgency despite years of U. Al Shabaab and its leaders have expressed both local and transnational goals. While the group seeks to unite ethnic Somali areas of East Africa under an Islamic government, al Shabaab has also expressed support for transnational jihadist aims. At the national level, al Shabaab emphasizes the expulsion of foreign troops from Somali territory and uses foreign military presence—such as the — Ethiopian invasion of Somalia—to recruit fighters and propagandize.
While al Shabaab is aligned with al Qaeda, the extent to which this alliance influences al Shabaab's behavior, particularly in combat, remains an open question.
For example, statistical analyses of al Shabaab attacks have demonstrated that there was no significant difference in the frequency or lethality of the group's bombing activities before and after the pledge to al Qaeda.
In addition to al Shabaab's core leadership structure, the group also operates multiple security organs, including the Amniyat, an intelligence agency with some policing responsibility, and Jeysh Al-Hisbah, al Shabaab's police force.
Amniyat, for example, leads counterintelligence efforts and purges al Shabaab fighters suspected of spying for state intelligence agencies. Al Shabaab also administers a sophisticated administrative and financial bureaucracy capable of governing and generating significant resources for the group. For example, al Shabaab has previously operated a system of mobile courts to deliver legal services to Somali citizens, with some people traveling into al Shabaab-controlled territory to access these courts rather than Somali state courts.
Despite international bans on Somali charcoal, al Shabaab generates significant revenue from taxing black market charcoal. Al Shabaab makes significant use of explosive devices and suicide bombings in attacks against the Somali government, military, and civilians. One analysis found that, between al Shabaab's first suicide bombing attack in September and October , the group deployed suicide bombers across attacks, killing as many as 2, people.
At times, such as following the group's withdrawal from Mogadishu in , al Shabaab has used suicide bombers as a strategy to continue to inflict punishment on Somali and international forces even in areas where it did not exert territorial control.
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