Al-Shabaab seeks to reinvigorate itself after a series of battlefield losses to AMISOM peacekeepers and Somali Government troops. Al-Shabaab strategists have identified in-house operational flaws and the after-effects of the internal wrangles that occasioned the previous leadership as the main causes of their recent military failures. This compelled the current leader of Al-Shabaab, Ahmed Abu Ubaidah, to call for a meeting of senior-ranking Al-Shabaab commanders and officials in order to strategize on military affairs and also deal with the internal fissures emerging within the terror organization.
The meeting was held yesterday in Bardere, a town in Gedo region which is under the control of the terror organization. Information from reliable sources confirm that during the meeting, Abu Ubaidah reached out to former jihadists who had been expelled from the terror organization or had abandoned the group after falling out with the former leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane. This fact indicates that Al-Shabaab has suffered a significant loss of military resources (including fighters killed in battles and those who simply abandoned the group), and a loss of its soft power as evidenced by its failure to recruit more fighters within Somalia to bolster its rank and replace its losses. This necessitated the current Al-Shabaab move with its senior leadership aiming to mend fences with its former fighters who could be re-incorporated into the terror outfit, and thus avail their weapons and military skills to the jihadi insurgency.
Ahmed Abdi Godane proved to be a divisive leader of the terror organization as it was during his leadership that Al-Shabaab experienced internal conflicts that led to the killing or exiling of several experienced jihadi fighters. It was also during Godane’s leadership that a significant number of Al-Shabaab militants switched allegiances to the Somali government. Abu Ubaidah aims to rectify the mistakes of the previous leadership and unify the current al-Shabaab factions. This reveals a strategic resolve by Al-Shabaab’s leadership to form a unified command structure and an integrated chain of command within the terror outfit.
