The Sapping Strength of Al Shabaab

By Abdullahi Jamaa
(Adopted from Somalia Report)
It is apparent from the events of recent weeks that Somalia’s radical Islamist group, Al Shabaab, is losing strength and ground due to the recent Transitional Federal Government (TFG) offensive, casting doubt on their ability to continue to control much of southern Somalia.

Following recent intensified fighting, Al Shabaab lost strategic towns in the south and a number of its military bases in the capital of Mogadishu. The latest loss of the towns of Bulla Hawa and Luuq is a powerful testimony to the sapping strength of the Islamists, both militarily and ideologically.

Even as Al Shabaab consolidates its power in large swathes of the land in Somalia, there is a growing concern over whether the group can still hold the power of its strongholds given the rising military opposition from the authority of Sheikh Sharif, backed by the international community and supported by African Union (AU) peacekeepers.

Al Shabaab provides the only significant opposition to the fragile western-backed Somali government, but if the current emerging signals are anything to go by, the present military onslaught seems to be an acid test for the group that has vowed to rule Somalia under Islamic sharia law.
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The War On Piracy Hits a Dead End

By Abdullahi Jamaa(Adopted From Somaliareport)

Indonesian Bulk Cargo Carrier MV SINAR KUDUS is the latest victim of a rash of hijacking conducted by Somali pirates on the 16th of March. Hijacked approximately 320 nautical miles North East of the island of Socotra in the Somali Basin, the attack bears a transformed hallmark of the dreaded Somali pirates who are carrying out more brazen attacks than ever before.

The escalating raids on vessels voyaging along the Gulf of Aden, East Coast of Somalia, Southern region of the Red Sea, Bab-El-Mandeb strait and the East Coast of Oman remains an enigma that envelopes one of the most strategic waterways of the world.

It is indeed a problem of huge monumental proportion that had stunned world leaders, policy makers and pressure groups who hitherto finds themselves unable to draw a clear battle line and a better strategy to win the war on piracy.

And to contain the situation they have tried their level best but in vain, the International community left nothing to chance in dealing with the piracy issue for instance various states and international organizations are actively engaged in stopping piracy.

There are currently three navy missions in the Gulf of Aden: Operation Atlanta under the European Union Naval Force, the US led Combined Task Force 151 and NATO’s ‘Operation Ocean Shield”. These missions have been aided by the presence of warships belonging to China, Japan, Iran, India and Russia.

Despite the presence of about 20 warships comprising of the world’s most powerful navies, the trouble of piracy is still huge and its predicament is mind-boggling than it was a few years ago and before the naval operations have began. Merchant vessels have now been put to the expense of passing through an endangered waterway where Somali pirates prowl mercilessly.
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