Terror in Somalia

One of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the last decade struck Somalia’s capital Mogadishu    this past Saturday. At least 300 people were killed while hundreds of others were injured in the truck bomb claimed by the terrorist group, al-Shabaab. One of the most fragile states in eastern Africa, Somalia has been on the brink of famine, which was only averted earlier this year after a massive humanitarian effort. The country is in the second year of an IMF bailout package but the situation remains grim. Groups such as al-Shabaab have been able to take root in the chaos caused by weak states in eastern Africa. Earlier attempts to control it have not worked. After its leader was killed in a US drone strike in 2014, a general amnesty was offered to moderate members of the group in Somalia – which proved to be unsuccessful. In Saturday’s tragedy, al-Shabaab was able to pack hundreds of kilograms of military-grade explosives into a truck in the centre of Mogadishu. The tragedy has been compounded by the fact that many of the remains are unidentifiable. The government has already buried over 110 of the victims and another 50 bodies are in a similar state.

The decade-long fight against al-Shabaab has yielded little fruit as the group continues to rely on weak borders between different states to hide and re-group. With an estimated 7,000 members, it has been able to continue its terrorist offensive without much deterrence. The US military became involved in the Obama era but earlier this year Trump promised renewed military action against the group, in response to which al-Shabaab promised to increase its attacks. Somalia’s new president took power in February on the pledge of ridding the country of terrorism but the challenge has been far from simple. The explosives themselves could have been stolen from the African Union’s peacekeeping mission, which would be worrying. The group has demonstrated significant capability to target civil and military targets in a region that continues to be considered one of the backwaters of the world. In 2015, the group attacked a university in Kenya where over 150 students were killed. In 2016, it was able to kill around 180 Kenyan troops stationed in Somalia to lead the fight against the terrorist group. Fighting al-Shabaab will not be an easy task. In this famine-struck region, there is little choice available to those who join these groups. Without repairing the economy, military efforts to fight al-Shabaab and other militants in the region will prove to be useless.