BACKGROUND INFORMATION
“Zwei Anlässe für die Gründung der Shabaab werden in der wissenschaftlichen Literatur angeführt. Der am häufigsten genannte Grund liegt in der chaotischen Situation, die durch den jahrelang anhaltenden Bürgerkrieg in Somalia verursacht wurde, so dass die Union Islamischer Gerichte beschloss, zwischen 2004 und 2006 die Shabaab-Milizen als militärischen Arm zu gründen, um wieder eine stabile Ordnung zu etablieren.“ (
KAS, 11 August 2011)
“2006 erlangte die Rebellenorganisation 'Union islamischer Gerichte' die Kontrolle über weite Teile Süd- und Zentralsomalias und etablierte insbesondere in Mogadischu erstmals seit Kriegsbeginn eine gewisse Stabilität. Ende des Jahres marschierten äthiopische Truppen in Somalia ein und entmachteten die 'Union islamischer Gerichte'. Die föderale Übergangsregierung versuchte mit Unterstützung Äthiopiens, die Kontrolle zu übernehmen, stieß aber auf erbitterten Widerstand von Clans und islamistischen Milizen, die die äthiopische Militärpräsenz ablehnten..“ (
AI, December 2011)
„Remnants of the ICU regrouped in the Al Harakat Al Mujahidin Al-Shabaab, or al-Shabab (Youth Movement), and other armed opposition groups, including the Hizbul Islam coalition formed in early 2009.“ (
AI, 20 July 2011, p. 9)
“Im März 2007 kamen die ersten Schutztruppen der Friedensmission der Afrikanischen Union (AMISOM) zur Unterstützung der Übergangsregierung ins Land. 2009 zogen sich die äthiopischen Truppen aus Somalia zurück. Der gemäßigte Islamist Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed wurde neuer Präsident der Übergangsregierung, die von der extremistischen al-Shabaab-Miliz bekämpft wurde. Al-Shabaab war zwar als Jugendorganisation der 'Union islamischer Gerichte' tätig, wurde aber nach deren Zerschlagung durch die äthiopischen Truppen eine eigenständige Organisation. Bis Ende 2010 übernahm al-Shabaab in weiten Teilen Süd- und Zentralsomalias wieder die Kontrolle. Die Übergangsregierung wurde unter dem Schutz der AMISOM-Mission auf Teile Mogadischus zurückgedrängt.
Ab Februar 2011 intensivierten die Truppen der Übergangsregierung und AMISOM-Truppen den Kampf gegen die al-Shabaab-Miliz, die sich im August 2011 aus Mogadischu zurückziehen mussten und im Sommer auch in anderen Teilen des Landes unter Druck gerieten. Nach mehreren Überfällen und Entführungen von ausländischen Staatsbürgern aus Kenia durch somalische Milizen marschierten im Oktober 2011 kenianische Truppen im Süden Somalias ein.“ (
AI, December 2011)
OVERVIEW
“Originally the small, youth militia arm of a relatively moderate Islamist organization that rose to power in Somalia in early 2006, al Shabaab was radicalized and brought to prominence as a popular Islamist guerilla movement by Ethiopia’s invasion in December of that year. However, since early 2008 al Shabaab has undergone yet another transformation, this time from a largely nationalist organization focused on driving out Ethiopia through conventional military means to a hybrid movement that has increasingly embraced transnational terrorism and attempted to portray itself as part of the al Qaeda-led global war against the West.” (
CSIS, 15 July 2011, p. 1)
“The Islamist armed group al-Shabaab is subjecting inhabitants of southern Somalia to killings, cruel punishments, and repressive social control, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. […] Based on over 70 interviews with victims and witnesses, the report describes harsh punishments including amputations and floggings, which are meted out regularly and without due process. People accused of being traitors or government sympathizers - often on flimsy pretexts - face execution or assassination.“ (
HRW, 19 April 2011)
“In areas that al-Shabaab controlled, Sharia was enforced; […] Al-Shabaab's interpretation of Sharia law resulted in uneven and at times draconian sentencing.” (
USDOS, 8 April 2011, Section 1e)
“Al-Shabaab has subjected young men and boys to abuses that include forced military recruitment and strict social control. […] Beatings or public humiliations are commonly meted out to men for a broad range of offenses such as failing to go to mosque, having long hair, or wearing clothes that al-Shabaab considers Western.“ (
HRW, 19 April 2011)
“Girls are also reported to be increasingly recruited for marriage to fighters. […] Further, allegations that Al-Shabaab combatants were systematically forcing girls into early marriages were received in October. Two cases perpetrated by the Transitional Federal Government were also documented.” (
UNSC, 23 April 2011, p. 30-32)
“In most areas under al- Shabab control, women and girls have been forced to wear the hijab (Islamic headscarf), or the abaya (a traditional Islamic over-gown). Women and girls found not wearing such clothing have been punished with flogging, often on the spot.” (
AI, 20 July 2011, p. 47)
“Al-Shabaab and other opposition fighters threaten and kill civilians they see as sympathetic to the transitional government. Al-Shabaab has also carried out devastating suicide attacks against civilians, including one at a university graduation ceremony in Mogadishu that killed at least 22 people in December 2009.” (
HRW, 19 April 2011)
“Al-Shabaab derived most of its funding internally, particularly from control over the key port of Kismaayo and taxation of goods and legitimate commerce. […] Al-Shabaab also financed its operations through extortion of private citizens and local businesses, revenue from air and seaports under their control, and to an unknown extent by diversion of humanitarian and development assistance. […] In areas controlled by al-Shabaab, the group "taxed" goods' movements.” (
USDOS, 18 August 2011)
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
OCTOBER 2011
“Amnesty International condemns the armed group al-Shabab’s bomb attack which occurred yesterday in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital city, killing between 68 and 82 persons and injuring over 90 others, many of them civilians.” (
AI, 5 October 2011)
“Officials in Somalia say a truck bomb has exploded outside a compound housing government buildings in Mogadishu, killing some 70 people and wounding dozens of others.” (
RFE/RL, 4 October 2011)
“A truck bomb has killed at least 65 people at government buildings in the heart of the Somalian capital, an ambulance worker said. Al-Shabaab insurgents have claimed responsibility for the attack.” (
Guardian, 4 October 2011)
“Hundreds of families are on the move in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, after three days of fighting between government troops supported by African Union peacekeeping troops (AMISOM) and Islamist insurgents, local sources told IRIN. […] Troops of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), supported by AMISOM, began a move on 8 October to clear Al-Shabab from its last remaining strongholds in Mogadishu. […] The fighting has claimed the lives of dozens of civilians.” (
IRIN, 11 October 2011)
“Hundreds of residents in the war-torn Somali capital were fleeing Wednesday ahead of expected fresh assaults against final pockets of Islamist Shebab rebels, officials and witnesses said. […] African Union and Somali government forces launched assaults on Saturday in northeast Mogadishu, seizing strategic positions from the Al-Qaeda linked insurgents. Witnesses said residents were packing belongings onto trucks and donkey carts in northern Mogadishu's Suqaholaha district.” (
AFP, 12 October 2011)
“Heavy fighting between government forces and militant Islamists in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, has forced the closure of a hospital, an aid group says. Dr Ahmed Mohamed said the shelling of a maternity unit run by SOS Children on Monday killed one staff member and forced patients and staff to flee.“ (
BBC, 11 October 2011)
“Kenya's foreign minister has told the BBC his country has sent troops into neighbouring Somalia to target the Islamist militant group al-Shabab. […] Witnesses described dozens of military vehicles pouring over the border, backed by planes and helicopters.” (
BBC, 17 October 2011)
“Backed by aerial bombings and guided by pro-government Somali forces, Kenyan troops moved deeper into southern Somalia, a day after Nairobi declared war on the Shebab militia and confirmed that it had sent its army across the border. Kenyan soldiers were reported near the village of Qoqani, some 50 miles inside southern Somalia, a Shebab stronghold.” (
AFP, 17 October 2011)
“A Somali doctor tells VOA that al-Qaida-linked militants have forcibly dismantled one of the biggest camps for displaced people near Mogadishu. The doctor said Sunday al-Shabab militants loaded more than 4,300 families into trucks and sent them back to the areas they had fled. The doctor said al-Shabab had decided to dismantle the camp overnight for military reasons. He said each family was sent home with an aid package that included 20 kilos of sugar, rice and cooking oil, and about $30.” (
VOA, 17 October 2011)
“A roadside bomb in Somalia's capital slightly injured two civilians Wednesday, a day after a suicide car bomb killed at least five in the war-ravaged city, a resident said. ‘There was a roadside bomb near the sea port, two people were slightly hurt," said Ali Said. The bombing is the latest in a string of explosions to rock Somalia's violent capital, which officials blame on the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab rebels.’ (
AFP, 19 October 2011)
NOVEMBER 2011
“Somalia's transitional government has said its forces, backed by Kenyan troops, have repulsed an attack by Islamist al-Shabab insurgents. A Somali military spokesman told the BBC they killed 36 insurgents in a counter-attack in the south. But an al-Shabab commander said the militia had destroyed Kenyan military trucks and inflicted heavy casualties.” (
BBC, 2 November 2011)
“Al Shabaab claimed to have killed 15 government soldiers in four separate attacks. Twelve were killed as they patrolled the Howlwadag road, the rebels said. Other targets included the house of a former justice minister and a prominent local elder.” (
Reuters – Alert Net, 9 November 2011)
“Mohamed Mohamud Saney, a colonel in the Somali army, told reporters that they repelled Shebab attacks in northern Mogadishu areas late on Monday.” (
AFP, 15 November 2011)
“Somalia's Islamist rebels attacked government and African Union troops positions in the war-torn capital, killing four civilians and wounding 12 others, officials and witnesses said Friday.” (
AFP, 18 November 2011)
“Colonel Cyrus Oguna, a spokesperson for the Kenyan Defense Forces says a total of 31 al-Shabab militants have been killed in the recent clashes, and that the military is now in control of the town of Kolbio, which he described as a major al-Shabab stronghold.” (
VOA, 19 November 2011)
“Nov. 21 -- Residents say al Shabaab has begun withdrawing from at least two rebel enclaves in central Somalia after an incursion by hundreds of Ethiopian troops.” (
Reuters – Alert Net, 25 November 2011a) “A government official also acknowledged for the first time that a small force had already rolled across the border to carry out reconnaissance missions. Ethiopia had previously denied that scores of military trucks and armoured vehicles had moved in on Nov. 19 and 20.” (
Reuters – Alert Net, 25 November 2011b)
“Somali civilians bore the brunt of violence in the war-torn nation Tuesday, with a roadside bomb killing 10 in the capital and fighter jet strikes in the south claiming three lives. A roadside bomb exploded in a crowded area in the south of Mogadishu, where Islamist Shebab insurgents have launched repeated guerrilla attacks since pulling out of fixed positions three months ago. […] ‘Two military jets bombed Yaqle village, which lies between El Wak and Dhamase, three civilians were killed and several others injured,’ said Moalim Abdulahi Mumin, an elder in El Wak, a town on the Kenya-Somalia border.” (
AFP, 22 November 2011)
“’KDF (Kenya Defence Force) air strikes successfully destroyed two Al-Shebab camps,’ army spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir said the day after the attacks near Badade, some 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the Kenyan border.” (
AFP, 24 November 2011)
“The World Health Organisation said on Tuesday [29 November 2011] its offices in southern Somalia were looted during rebel raids while children's relief agency UNICEF said its base in the area remained occupied. The United Nations organisations were among six ordered closed by Islamist Shebab rebels in areas under their control on Monday.” (
AFP, 29 November 2011) “Al-Shabab fighters have closed down several aid agencies working in famine-hit Somalia, including some from the UN, accusing them of political bias. Militants stormed aid offices in the towns of Baidoa and Beledweyne, which like many southern areas are controlled by al-Shabab, witnesses say” (
BBC, 28 November 2011)
“A wave of roadside bombs in Somalia's capital killed seven people over two days, officials said on Tuesday, as government forces struggled to secure Mogadishu against attacks from Islamist rebels. Al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab militants, fighting Somalia's Western-backed government, pulled out of most of their permanent bases in Mogadishu in August, and vowed to switch to guerilla tactics and target government installations. Police and residents blamed al Shabaab fighters for the latest wave of blasts in the capital.” (
Reuters – Alert Net, 29 November 2011)
DECEMBER 2011
“Fighter jets bombed an Islamist militant base in southern Somalia on Friday, residents and soldiers said, as neighbouring Kenya continued its offensive against the rebels. […] ‘We heard sounds of the jets and then bombs. We understood later that they were targeting an al Shabaab base in Ceel Ade village,’ Ali Keyre Mohamed, a local resident, told Reuters.” (
Reuters – Alert Net, 2 December 2011)
“At least five people, including a Somali policeman, have been killed as a car exploded while it was being searched in Mogadishu, sources say. […] Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group al-Shabab, which has staged several suicide attacks in the city in the past, said it carried out the attack. Meanwhile, Kenya says more than 40 al-Shabab fighters and 11 Somali soldiers were killed in a battle in the southern town of Hawo, near Afmadow, at the weekend.” (
BBC, 6 December 2011)
“Dozens of Islamist militants and 11 Somali government troops were killed in weekend fighting in the town of Hayo, southern Somalia, and Kenyan jets have launched new air strikes on rebel bases, a Kenyan military spokesman said on Tuesday.” (
Reuters – Alert Net, 6 December 2011)
“The Somali capital, Mogadishu, has been hit by some of the fiercest fighting in the city in months, in what is seen as a major setback for the government. […] Al-Shabab withdrew from Mogadishu in August and the government then declared that the city was under its control. The fighting occurred in the northern districts of Karan and Huriwa on Thursday. BBC East Africa Correspondent Will Ross says the fighting lasted for several hours as al-Shabab tried, but it seems failed, to seize ground.” (
BBC, 8 December 2011)
“Islamist militants in Somalia have blocked two International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) convoys carrying emergency food aid for drought victims this month, contractors and a senior rebel said. […] One large convoy was still being held up in Somalia's Middle Shabelle region after being stopped earlier this month. […] The second column was stopped in Gedo, a southern province bordering Ethiopia, and then forced to go to Baidoa.” (
Reuters, 15 December 2011)
“Kenya's military confirmed it had carried out two attacks by air on an al-Shabab camp in the area of Hosingow village, killing 17 militants.”(
BBC, 21 December 2011)
“Ethiopian forces have captured the central Somali town of Beledweyne from al-Shabab Islamist militants. […] Twenty people were killed in the fighting, a BBC Somali reporter said, mostly Ethiopian troops and al-Shabab fighters.” (
BBC, 31 December 2011)
“’I saw some Somali government troops accompanied by armed trucks belonging to the Ethiopian forces, they have entered the city and the fighting has stopped now’, Abdirahman Isa, another witness said. ‘I have seen nearly 20 dead bodies strewn in the streets and outside the town, most of them are combatants but a few civilians were also caught in the crossfire,’ he added.” (
AFP, 31 December 2011)
JANUARY 2012
“The Kenyan army says it has killed 60 Somali al-Shabab militia fighters in air strikes and is determined to ‘break their spine completely’. […] Kenyan air strikes hit al-Shabab positions in Garbaharey in southern Somalia's Gedo region, according to Col Oguna.“ (
BBC, 7 January 2012)
“Pro-government forces have launched a major offensive from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, to seize territory from al-Shabab Islamist militants. Some 1,000 soldiers backed up by 20 tanks captured three al-Shabab bases, a senior security official said.” (
BBC, 20 January 2012)
“Islamist militants have launched a suicide truck bomb attack on an Ethiopian military base in central Somalia, witnesses say. Al-Shabab says it killed 10 Ethiopian soldiers in the attack in the town of Beledweyne but this has not been confirmed.” (
BBC, 24 January 2012)
SOURCES: (all links accessed at 27 January 2012)
