National Security is Everyone's Business

April 26th, 2024 | 2:57 AM ET

Combatting the Al Shabaab Threat

Posted: February 4th, 2016

The lack of good governance and the spread of terrorism seem to go hand in hand.   That is quite apparent in East Africa.  Just last month, al Qaeda’s affiliate, al Shabaab, attacked an African Union base in Southwest Somalia, the third forward operating base that al Shabaab has overrun in the last seven months. 

Somalia has effectively been without a functioning central government since 1991.   The Somalia Council of Islamic Courts was founded in an attempt to fill the gap created by the collapse of the government.  Al Shabaab was the militant wing of the group.  After Ethiopian and Somali forces defeated the Islamic Courts in 2007, al Shabaab began its violent insurgency. Its initial goal was to rid Somalia of outside interference, but later, it advocated the overthrow of the Western supported Transitional Federal Government with the intent of creating an Islamic nation under Sharia law.

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.

Subscriber+

Categorized as:InternationalTagged with:

Related Articles

How Safe Would We Be Without Section 702?

SUBSCRIBER+EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW — A provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that has generated controversy around fears of the potential for abuse has proven to be crucial […] More

June 1st, 2023

Search

Close