US Airforce Supporting KDF operations in Gedo and Jubba Regions, and Kenya

Highlight

• During Obama’s visit to Kenya, the US Air force liaised with the Kenyan military to strengthen the Kenya-Somalia border from possible infiltration, besides backing up KDF operations in Gedo and Jubba regions in Southwestern Somalia.

Changing Counter-Insurgency and Counter-Terrorism Policies

The US government has conceded that it has changed its aerial operation policies with regards to Somalia, in order to adapt to a changing violent and politically-fluid environment. The US Air force alongside intelligence agencies worked closely with the Kenyan government and in extension the Kenyan military, to sanitize the Kenya-Somalia border zone a week prior to Obama’s visit to Nairobi for the GES 2015 Summit. This was necessitated by the fact that Al-Shabaab had been able to infiltrate into Kenya’s north-eastern regions and conduct terrorist activities. Most of the terrorist infiltrators used their operational military bases, in Gedo and Jubba region, as Forward Operational Bases to extend their terror campaign into Kenya.

A continuous series of drone strikes which occurred within a span of 10 days enabled the US and Kenyan military to dismantle a portion of the terrorist infrastructure in Gedo region as well as oust Al-Shabaab from its last urban stronghold of Bardheere.

Forecast

Close intelligence cooperation between the US and Kenya will stabilize Kenya’s security environment in the short-term as well as lay ground for the implementation of lasting security policies that would ensure that Kenya vitiates domestic terrorist activities besides stifling transnational terrorism within the region.