Gaping fissures on the political and militia leadership confederation of the largest and most mephitic terror group in Africa, Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen, are now bare. How long this may last isn’t obscure since the group often conducts ruthless purges on traitors, but on the short-term, sweeping changes at the leadership of both levels of the group are not in doubt. Fostered largely by greed for Federal Government dollars and promise of amnesty and political inclusion, a typical characteristics of jihadi leaders, the moderates in the hierarchy of Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen are accused of spying on the field intelligence and militia operations commanders and worse, passing intelligence to the Somali Government leading to precisions airstrikes targeting these commanders by AFRICOM assets in the region.
Intelligence reports confirmed that in the morning of Thursday 27th of June, violent skirmishes broke in Jiliib pitting core Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen commanders against each other. The violence, though actual incident reports are yet to be reviewed, confirms that the infighting between the groups ranks and file forced the group’s leadership to worry, possibly call for a shura council meeting. The fighting is largely blamed on successful airstrikes targeting top intelligence and military commanders in the groups’ bastions, specifically Central Somalia.
The Amniyaat, the intelligence wing of the group claimed that moderate members of the governing council covertly met representatives of President Mohamed Farmaajo of Somalia in what could have been the onset of negotiating a political truce and subsequent de-escalation by the terror group. A Critical review of the terror groups activities around Mogadishu confirm indeed the number of attacks have almost fizzled after the accused group shared locations of terrorist safe-houses, operatives, and weapon safes around and inside the capital, an outcome that crippled the groups capability to mount large scale attacks. However, it’s the killing of field intelligence and military operations commanders that has made the fissures bare leading to violent confrontations between commanders allied to the suspected group and the mephitic terror group.
In coming days, Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen, is going to conduct a violent purge targeting moderates in its governing council accused of helping the Federal Government of Somalia in exchange of money and clan-political favors. The events will further culminate to possible divisions at the governing council and subsequent morphing of the outfit into a more violent religious-political outfit that’ll fast track its core objective of governing Somalia under strict sharia law and further Al-Qaeda Central expansionist goals in the region. Thus, the move to divide its rank and file by the FGS was foolhardy and most certainly a mistake that’ll badly reflect on the country’s future.
