Since the establishment
of the al-Shabaab terrorist group in 2004, it has been the most serious threat
for sustaining peace and security in Somalia. So far, it has killed more than
2.000 people in Somalia and East Africa. The terrorist group has not only posed
security threats for Somalia but also created threats and challenges for the
security of the regions and the Western interests in Africa. On 22 November
2014, Somalia terrorist group Al-Shabaab killed 28 passengers in the bus attack
in the town of Mandera near the Kenyan-Somali border, the north-east of Kenya.
The Al-Shabaab also killed 67 civilians and wounded 175 persons at the Westgate
shopping mall in the city of Westland in Nairobi on 23 September 2013.
Al-Shabaab has particularly increased its attacks in Kenya and in East Africa
since 2011.
There are internal and
external driving forces behind terrorist attacks and the emergence of the
al-Shabaab terrorist group in Somalia. The first dynamic is the socio-economic
developments. Somalia is among the poorest countries in the world and
corruption is extremely very high in the country. Due to the long-standing
civil war in Somalia, economic and political institutions have failed to
provide the basic services to the citizens. Since 1991, hundreds of thousands
of Somali have died due to violence and starvation and approximately one
million was forced to free the country. Infrastructure in the country is
extremely poor. Socio-economic dynamics in the country have paved the way for
the birth of the radical terrorist organizations such as al-Shabaab terorrist
group in the region.
The second dynamics is
the failure of the political institutions and system in Somalia. Since 1991,
there has not been a central government in the country, facing a deep political,
social, and economic instability. It is described as a collapsed state by the
international community. Since the collapse of
the regime of Siad Barre in 1991, Somalia has fallen into anarchy and
long-standing conflicts. The dysfunctional political institutions in Somalia
have led to the emergence of complicated security problems including terrorist
organizations which threaten political and economic stability of the
neighbouring countries in East Africa.
The third driving force
is that the members of the al-Shabaab believe that their religion is an
important force to join the group and the religion of Islam is under the
threat; therefore they have a responsibility to protect their religion and
establish an Islamic state. However, the
main aim of the al-Shabaab is not to create an Islamic state and to spread the
religion. The radical terrorist organizations have a strong intention to
exploit the religion to recruit the supporters and to strengthen their
legitimacy through exploitation of religions and identities of the local
population. It can be said that al-Shabaab particularly separated the
passengers Muslims and the non-Muslims in the bus attack on 22 November 2014 so
as to gain more supporters from the local Muslim population in Somalia and the
countries in East Africa. The message was that al-Shabaab was protecting
Muslims. Furthermore, The Kenyan Government closed down four mosques in Mombasa
in November 2014 and heightened its controls over the Muslim in the country,
saying that the Muslims had connection with the al-Shabaab terrorist group.
It important to
underline that discriminative policies of the Kenyan Government against the
Muslims in country have facilitated the recruitments of the members of the
al-Shabaab in Kenya. The fourth force is the legacy of the colonialism in
Somalia. The legacy of the colonialism has still affected the political and
economic developments in East Africa. The colonial powers Italy and Britain
divided Somalia and created many different ethnic groups in the country.
Particularly, the ongoing border dispute between the states in this region is
the legacy of the colonial powers. Since Somalia has gained its independence,
it has pursued an aggressive foreign policy to annex the Somali-inhabited
regions in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti under the policy of irredentism. The
legacy of colonialism has devastated political and economic developments in
Somalia and aggravated relations between the neighbouring countries in East
Africa.
The last underlying
factor is the foreign intervention of Somalia. The international community has
paid a great deal of attention of the terrorist activities of the
Al-Shabaab after it attacked the civilians at a Westgate shopping mall in
Nairobi in September 2013, killing 67 persons and injuring the hundreds.
Al-Shabaab claimed that the group especially targeted the civilians in Kenya
due to the fact that Kenya intervened militarily in the southern Somalia in
October 2011 and also Kenya has the four thousand Kenyan soldiers in Somalia
working within the framework of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
After this attack, al-Shabaab became more apparent and gained more recognition
in East Africa and in the world. Al-Sabaab did its first attacks outside of
Somalia in Uganda in July 2010, killing more than 70 persons. It is important
to note that Uganda was the first country sending its troops and has maintained
the largest military troops at the AMISOM since July 2013. Its first attack on
Uganda also showed that the group has developed a more global vision to gain
support and legitimacy. Poverty, conflict and war, underdevelopment, corruption
have marginalized the society and contributed to the reinforcement of
al-Shabaab in East Africa. Lastly, the political and military intervention of
Kenya in security in Somalia will strongly continue to provocate the al-Shabaab
terrorist group to carry out massive terrorist attacks on Kenya.
