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The Cipher brief spoke with Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, CEO of Valens Global and a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, about the growing al Shabaab threat in the Horn of Africa. According to Gartenstein-Ross, al Shabaab’s “capabilities are probably at their strongest” since 2012 as demonstrated by the group’s ability to “carry out far more large-scale, spectacular attacks” in the last year. Furthermore, Gartenstein-Ross says that al Shabaab will continue to remain a threat for the foreseeable future, and that there is “no easy answer regarding what can be done to more effectively combat al Shabaab.”

The Cipher Brief: What is your assessment of al Shabaab’s current capabilities? 

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