2018 is the most brutal .. «El Shabab» fires Somalia with successive terrorist attacks

By: Aya Ezz

The Somali Shabab movement, on Sunday 14 October 2018, adopted two suicide bombings in the city of Baidoa in southern Somalia, killing about 20 people and injuring 40 others, according to Reuters.

In recent weeks, violence and attacks by al-Shabaab movement in Somalia, led by Ahmed Diri Abu Ubaidah, have escalated. As has the expansion of movement in Somalia, taking advantage of the vacancy and insecurity in Somalia.

Several reports and studies published by Somali and African research centers, notably the Mogadishu Center for Research and Studies and the Africa News Portal, indicate that the terrorist movement from 2014 to 2017 has gained considerable flexibility to cope with Somalia’s difficult political conditions In that period.

Over the past three years, the terrorist movement has mobilized a large number of youth from neighboring countries, especially young Kenyans, as well as a large number of Da’asyis from Syria and Iraq.

According to a report issued by the magazine “Long War” of the US Department of Defense, the Somali Shabab movement has rebuilt itself in previous years, and became a rival group for the  Nigerian “Bokoharam” in the front scene of the Horn of Africa.

According to a recent report by the Mogadishu Center for Studies and Research, the young Mujahideen were able to launch 418 attacks during the past six months, namely between October 2017 and April 2018. In August 2018, violence escalated and attacks were launched on a daily basis in Somalia. All its attacks were concentrated in the capital, Mogadishu, which alone witnessed nearly 125 attacks in the past six months.

The report pointed out that the movement was able during the last period to reach southern Somalia and a number of villages and towns controlled by the Somali army and African forces. In addition that the movement was able to carry out 16 terrorist attacks on the territory of Kenya, according to police in Kenya.

In August 2018, the violence of the movement increased, with three terrorist attacks on a weekly basis, as well as some state institutions in Mogadishu.

In the past, the organization carried out more than an armed attack on the military bases of the Somali army. Most notably was the attack in July on a military base in Kismayo, southern Somalia, and then the attack killed 27 Somali soldiers, according to the authorities Somali.

In the first days of this month, October 2018, the movement carried out more than a terrorist attack on several military bases of the Somali government forces in the city of «Dinosaur» in the province of Bay, southwestern Somalia, according to Somali police said.

During the previous days, the movement launched a major attack on the state of Gulmadg, and kidnapped about 70 sheikhs of the tribal elders in that state, and led them to a base in the city of «Ayel Pour» in the central provinces of Somalia.

“The Horn of Africa region has recently begun to witness a kind of stability, and there has been great cooperation among some African countries, such as Ethiopia, and Mali and some neighboring countries,” said Abu Al-Fadl al-Isnawi, a researcher at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. “The terrorist organizations in general, and the Mujahideen Youth Movement specifically do not want this stability, because any terrorist organization grows in chaos within the climate of security turmoil,” El-Esnawi added.

“The last eight months have witnessed the entry of a large number of Daesh fugitives to Somalia, and there has been cooperation between Daesh and the movement,  which resulted in more brutal attacks on Somalia and neighboring countries,” El-Esnawy confirmed to El-Marga’a.