United Nations has said that the al Shabaab has been debilitated financially, politically, and militarily in the past year owing to the onslaught against them by AMISOM, US airstrikes, and the devastating famine.
First, the al Shabaab treasury and main sources of income and food being the levies on local communities has depleted seeing as they cannot meet the demanded payments that the HSM lives on. A lot of financing for Al-Shabaab comes from taxing economic activity in areas it controls, thus, when that goes down, the tax base goes down.
Over 200 fighters were killed in the last half of 2017, with hundreds other defecting which affects the military and tactical capabilities of the terror groups. Also, they lost most of their political support and backing after the Mogadishu attack that killed over 500 civilians. Moreover, the federal and state governments have been working tirelessly to improve the justice system as well resolving the inter-clan conflicts and as such cutting off the reciprocal support for the terrorists.
Additionally, there has been a lot of infighting and public execution of al Shabaab fighters suspected of spying for different governments which have instilled fear among the fighters especially those of foreign descent. The aforementioned factors have cumulatively weakened the al Shabaab expected to be defeated sooner rather than at
