by Bashir Goth
The latest terrorist attack on Somalia’s presidential palace comes
less than 10 days from another daylight suicide attack on a UN convoy
near Mogadishu’s airport. Somalia’s government may call it a “media
spectacular” by a “dying animal” but any honest observer can tell that
the threat of this Al-Qaeda offshoot group is not limited to Somalia but
can destabilize the whole East African region and the world at large.
Any victory for Al-Shabab in Somalia will be a victory against the will
and resolve of the African Union and the international community to
prevent Somalia from slipping back into being a hub for international
terrorism, piracy and lawlessness.
Known for their internationalist agenda of bringing the region and
the whole world under their banner, Al-Shabab will not stop in Mogadishu
if they get the upper hand. Their eyes are on Nairobi, Addis Ababa,
Djibouti, Kampala, and beyond
Their attacks in Mogadishu and before that in the Westgate Shopping
Mall in Nairobi in Sept 2013 will only be a precursor for their grand
plans of delivering death, destruction and fear to the streets of world
capitals.
Defeating Al Shabab, therefore, demands a concerted effort on
international and domestic fronts. On the international front, it is
obvious until now that despite their sacrifices and tangible victories,
AMISOM forces are not capable of defeating Al Shabab alone. They need
western support for better military intelligence, surveillance aircraft,
and fighter planes.
As Al Shabab is a mobile militia group using non-conventional shock
attacks, it is mainly through sophisticated intelligence that their
movements and plans can be intercepted and aborted. It is not of sheer
coincidence that whenever the British and American governments warn
their citizens against travelling to Somalia, Al Shabab’s attacks follow
almost immediately. This is proof that western countries possess
accurate intelligence of Al Shabab’s plans. How much of that
intelligence information, however, is shared with AMISOM or the Somali
government is beyond my knowledge. But the fact that the Somali
government and AMISOM come under surprise attacks by Al Shabab soon
after London and Washington’s travel warnings, one can only guess that
maybe western governments trust neither AMISOM nor the Somali
government. But trust or no trust, the end goal should be to defeat Al
Shabab, otherwise everyone would suffer in the end if a united front of
both military assistance and intelligence sharing is not put in place.
On the domestic front, it is required of the Somali government to
demonstrate that it is a trustworthy partner by establishing a system of
rigorous scrutiny of security personnel to prevent Al Shabab’s
infiltration in their ranks and using them as a Trojan horse to target
government installations as well as UN and AMISOM personnel. The
government also needs to improve the professionalism of its security
forces and to guarantee their economic welfare. Engaging the local
community in the war against Al Shabab through media campaigns led by
prominent figures, women, youth, and religious people will also be
highly beneficial in countering Al-Shabab’s false religious and
nationalistic propaganda.
Somali regional administrations should also join hands with the
federal government in fighting the menace of Al Shabab, the common enemy
of the Somali people. It is not rocket science to know that if
Mogadishu falls, no regional administration will survive. Those who
decide to live in denial will only do that at their own peril. It is
therefore imperative on everyone to recognize that the assassination
attempt on the Somali president and the attack on the presidential
palace is an attack on the sovereignty and identity of the Somali
nation. There is only one choice for the Somali people, to fight back
and defeat Al Shabab with the help of the international community or to
sit back and watch the Somali nation and its history sink into oblivion.
Bashir Goth
bsogoth@yahoo.com
Source: http://hanua.blogspot.com/
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