Somalia’s Al-Shabaab, AMISOM: Targeting a terrorist in the hope of future negotiations

Ahmed Adel

As part of the escalation of its terrorist operations against the African forces known as AMISOM, the so-called Shabaab al-Mujahideen on Sunday, September 15, claimed responsibility for the assassination of 14 soldiers of the African Union Mission in Somalia AMISOM in an attack on a convoy of African troops in an area near the city of Belad located 30 km north of the capital Mogadishu.

Attack on Garas Daily

According to the New Somalia website, the African forces came under attack in the area of Garas Daily which is 3 km away from Belad.

In May, Somalia was shocked by the decision of the African Union Peace and Security Council to reduce the number of regional peacekeepers in the country, despite the escalation of al-Shabaab terrorist attacks.

In June 2016, the AU Peace and Security Council decided to gradually reduce African forces in Somalia and withdraw fully by the end of 2020, with the responsibility for policing the Somali security forces and the national army from the beginning of that year. The African Union said it would withdraw 1,000 fighters and leave Somalia at the end of 2018, while the rest of the 22,000 troops would be completed.

Gradual withdrawal and security vacuum

As African peacekeepers continue their gradual withdrawal, the terrorist movement has retained its ability to recapture some areas previously occupied by Somali forces that had been extracted from the movement in previous years, as hundreds of terrorist elements poured into many villages left by the peacekeepers. The Somali government is suffering from political and security tensions.

The pro-Al Qaeda movement is seeking to launch the largest number of terrorist operations against the African forces known as AMISOM from time to time.

In August, al-Shabaab militants attacked an African force convoy on the road linking the towns of Bolobrdi and Jalgalsi in the central Somali region of Hiran. In July, the armed movement announced the killing of 10 Burundis affiliated to AMISOM burned three military vehicles, and managed to seize weapons.

The table of negotiations

In an exclusive statement to the Reference, Mohamed Ezzedine, researcher in African affairs, said that the movement is working to prove its presence intensively in the current period, and this was evident through the terrorist operations in the recent period.

Ezz confirmed that the proof of attendance comes as an impulse in an attempt to reach the political negotiating table, after Kenya announced it began to ban the movement and make it a terrorist organization on the lists of the United States of America.