Somalia sees victims and exhaustion of aid as terrorism strikes

Shaimaa Hafezy

A bloody day in Somalia has left about 100 people victims to a terrorist act, as the Al-Shabaab movement has escalated its attacks in the past two months, not only through killings but also by preventing adequate aid from reaching civilians and the injured.

The violent explosion of a car bomb in a crowded area of ​​the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday, December 28 resulted in at least 90 dead and dozens wounded, according to an ambulance service official.

The Somali Al-Shabaab movement, which has moved its allegiance between the al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorist movements, seeks to strengthen its presence after the fall of ISIS in Syria and Iraq and the killing of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in October 2019.

Although the Somali forces managed to keep the terrorists out of the capital with international assistance, the terrorist groups are heavily stationed in rural areas and are self-sufficient in terms of training and financing, and they focus on bombings that target the capital from time to time in order to draw attention.

Somalia’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Isse Awad said that institutions must be rebuilt to represent the effective force in countering terrorism, noting that Al-Shabaab has sources of funding that gave it the financial strength to enable it to launch its attacks.

“The Somalis do not have the financial opportunities that would enable them to face the Al-Shabaab movement, due to civil wars, weak state institutions, and the lack of opportunities in society, because the Al-Shabaab group has found the opportunity to use some individuals from abroad,” said Awad.

But where does the terrorist group’s funding come from? A field investigation conducted by the CNN in 2018 revealed that Al-Shabaab received millions of dollars annually by seizing foreign aid funds sent by Western countries designated to fight the terrorist group.

The investigation said that the funds provided by the United Nations directly to citizens displaced due to internal conflicts and famine often end up in the hands of the group’s fighters, based on the testimonies of former members of the terrorist movement and the statements of Somali intelligence agents, which indicate that the terrorist group gets thousands of dollars per day through roadblocks and ambushes, as well as by imposing taxes on merchants trying to transport food and supplies for sale to the displaced.

The Al-Shabaab movement also imposes royalties on the owners of trucks loaded with foodstuffs before entering the markets in the cities, while the proceeds of the money that the movement gets from trucks and other vehicles at two checkpoints on the road to Baidoa city is estimated at tens of thousands of dollars per day, according to a UN report.

According to the investigation, the fragile security situation in Somalia is assisting to expand the influence of Al-Shabaab, which controls almost a third of the country, along with the rampant corruption in the Somali regime, which is helping to continue to pump millions of dollars to the terrorist movement. The report predicted that Somalia will become an attractive land for ISIS extremists.

The humanitarian aid crisis is a major cornerstone in international dealings with the Al-Shabaab movement and its victims. In early September 2019, six member states of the UN Security Council prevented the Somali terrorist movement from being included on the list of organizations targeted by international sanctions, which includes al-Qaeda and ISIS, according to what diplomatic sources.

Many NGOs and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance have stepped in to prevent the group from being listed, as this could deprive millions of Somalis who live in areas controlled by extremists of humanitarian aid.

A diplomatic source said at the time that Germany, Belgium, Poland, France, Kuwait and the United States are the six countries that impeded this measure. In return, since November 2018, Kenya has made great efforts to expand the sanctions imposed on the Somali movement.

Kenya has demanded an amendment of Resolution 1267, which imposes sanctions on al-Qaeda, ISIS and their “affiliated” groups, while a large portion of Somalia’s population depends on international aid after three decades of war and economic devastation.

Critics of the measure said that including Al-Shabaab in Resolution 1267 would criminalize the provision of aid by the United Nations and NGOs to Somali citizens.

Somalia recently informed the United Nations that taking measures of this kind “will enhance the story of Al-Shabaab and the group’s image as a de facto government in areas where state access remains limited.”