Al Qaeda affiliated terror organization in Somalia has withdrawn and fled from a strategic stronghold town of Elbur in Central Somalia. The withdrawal was a reaction to a looming CT operation by a joint contingent of Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) and SNA troops in the town located in Galmudug state.
Al Shabaab has been weakened especially in the recent weeks CT actors in the country; SNA, AU forces, and the US Africa Command team continue to engineer relentless operations against the group. Intelligence reports out of Galmudug indicate that the militants withdrew from the town after heavily armored military vehicles mainly driven by Somali National Army and the Ethiopian non-AMISOM troops made into the town. The impending arrival has forced the militants to quickly disappear to neighbouring villages and thickets and not to be mistaken with complete withdraw.
Moreover, the town of Elbur has been under the control of Al Shabaab for almost a decade and is a great source of revenue for the group as it was used as a revenue collection center. Recently, it emerged that civilians who were opposed to the militants were openly executed, while dozens had been taken in as prisoners of war, with youths also forced to join the militants.
The CT operations in the state and the larger southern Somalia will ensure that the gains made against the al Shabaab are not irreversible and can be maintained to both protect the civilian populace as well as forge the Horn of African nation towards long-lasting peace and stability.
