Last month, al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda affiliate based in the Horn of Africa, released a recruitment video showcasing its appetite for poaching. In the video, al-Shabaab members boasted that they don’t need hunting permits, proclaimed that jihad is the “tourism of the ummah (nation),” and then proceeded to kill and mutilate a giraffe that was roaming in Kenya’s Boni National Reserve.
Links between terrorist organizations and poaching is a topic that has generated a fair amount of debate. A 2011 publication by the Elephant Action League (EAL) has served as a focal point for the discussion, alleging that proceeds from poaching may comprise up to 40 percent of al-Shabaab’s operating budget.
“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.
