The Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab continue to make gains as Somali government and allies fall out. The Islamist militants reportedly captured a strategic town in the semi-autonomous central state of Galmudug.
The Al-Qaeda associated militant force has been able to conduct string of incursion, imminently underscoring the group’s making gains amid notable divisions between Federal government and its allies in the region.
This trend has been notable for more than a decade whereby, Al-Shabaab has been able to catapult it insurgency by capitalizing on deep political divisions in Somalia, and now the situation continues to deteriorate over long-delayed elections.
Corresponding military and local reports indicate that, the militant group captured the town of Eldheere, about 30 km south of Galmudug’s capital Dhusamareb. Al-Shabaab fighters raided and bombed a police station before taking over the strategic town on December 14. Al-Shabaab operatives blew up the town’s police station, a military base, and other administrative buildings.and also kidnapped a trader; besides were threatening a key regional road.
Also, on Monday, December 13, Al-Shabaab fighters briefly took over the town of Mataban before it was recaptured by troops from Galmudug state as per local sources.
The raids in Galmudug follow infighting between the Somali government and its erstwhile allies, Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama’a (ASWJ), a Galmudug militia that was instrumental in the fight against Al-Shabaab. ASWJ says the government has accepted too many hardline clerics into its fold.
Analysts at Strategic Intelligence (S.I) have severally warned of toxic political divisions in the war-torn Somalia and now fear these political and geopolitical clashes will continue to derail the fight against Al-Shabaab.
