A donkey pulls a cart through the streets of Mogadishu. In the opposite direction comes a large armored personnel carrier. In Mogadishu, everyday life is quite different from most other capitals. In the worst case, staying in Somalia’s largest city can be life-threatening. Almost everyone who lives here has stories about how the terrorist group Al-Shabaab can suddenly strike. Even when you are behind high walls with barbed wire, you can run the risk of grenades being thrown over the wall and causing great damage. Al-Shabaab has been behind many attacks over many years. For example, a large car bomb can go off and both kill and injure. And when people flock to help, there is another explosion. So-called “twin attacks” have happened several times. Hopes for victory in 2023 Lately the attacks have gotten worse, because the new government has started an offensive against Al-Shabaab. Out in the dry areas in the south of Somalia, a war is going on. On Twitter, messages are constantly being shared in which it is claimed that the Somali government army is successful on the battlefield. The previous government pursued a policy that allowed the group to operate in the southern parts of Somalia to a greater extent. But Somalia’s new government has a different strategy. They have started new military cooperation with the United States, where Somali soldiers are trained by American special forces. The government has also allowed various clan militias to carry out attacks against Al-Shabaab more on their own. – Our problem is Al-Shabaab. I have no other wars. If we continue like this for one more year, I hope Somalia will be peaceful both in the south and the north, says Hamza Abdi Barre. He is Somalia’s prime minister and news gets to talk to him after he has met Norway’s development minister Anne-Beathe Tvinnereim. He is sitting in his office in Mogadishu. To get there you have to pass countless guards and many checkpoints. It is supposed to be a safe part of the city, but nevertheless there was a major attack in the neighborhood just a short week before he meets news for an interview. – We will continue the fight until we have got this cancer out of Somalia. Al-Shabaab is burning small villages, destroying people’s water sources, and they are looking to destroy ordinary people’s everyday lives, says Barre. Have prepared a strategy One of the sources of income for Al-Shabaab is to demand taxes from people in the area which they control with an iron fist. The goal is political power and the introduction of sharia law. At the end of the 2000s, the group was so strong that they ruled all of Mogadishu, but they were beaten back and have established themselves in the countryside. The Prime Minister believes that they are in the process of getting people over to their team, and he claims that many now refuse to pay taxes to Al-Shabaab. – There are no Somalis who give that money voluntarily. It’s about them becoming afraid of life. Every time we see that we are making progress in the fight against Al-Shabaab, there are fewer of them, says the Prime Minister. The government has a strategy to combat Al-Shabaab. Pursue a policy that unites people and creates commitment enough for many to turn their backs on Al-Shabaab. Attempt to choke off the financing of the terrorist group. Cultivate contact with religious leaders so that all religious communities turn their backs on Al-Shabaab. – The stronger the state is, the fewer people will give money to Al-Shabaab. We know that people don’t like them, but they are afraid of them. Therefore, I hope that we can make it easier for people to turn their backs, says Barre. Earlier this month, Hamza Abdi Barre was visited by Development Minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim. Photo: Vegard Tjørhom / news One of his predecessors was Norwegian-Somali Hassan Ali Khaire, who had to step down in 2020. Khaire was defeated by a motion of no confidence in parliament because a large majority believed that he had not done a good enough job of establishing national security forces and improve security in Somalia. Many are skeptical Not everyone has the same faith that the new government will be able to defeat Al-Shabaab. They believe the government is exaggerating its current military success, and point to the fact that Al-Shabaab controls 20 percent of Somalia’s territory and has support among many in southern Somalia. One of them is Mohamed Haji Ingiriis, a Somali who is currently visiting professor at King’s College in London. – This is pure wishful thinking, and only shows that the prime minister lives far away from the battlefield, says Ingiriis. The professor believes that every single new government in Somalia has had similar ambitions at the start of its term, but that the terrorist group has remained strong nonetheless. – This government is making the same military and political mistakes as previous governments. They rely too much on foreign forces, and that has not been able to stop Al-Shabaab so far. They also fail to ensure peace and stability in the areas that have been freed from Al-Shabaab’s control. Proposes peace talks The professor puts forward several explanations for why he believes the government is too weak in the fight against Al-Shabaab: Ingiriis believes it is a problem that the security forces of the government are largely built up according to the clan system, and who are the politicians’ favourites. While Al-Shabaab recruits based on experience, knowledge and skill. Al-Shabaab receives far more tax revenue than the current government, and is financially stronger, claims the professor. Al-shabaab’s political ideology, Salafism, is something many Somalis support. While the government’s political ideology, which is largely about the clan system, has a narrower scope, Ingiriis’s analysis is. He also believes that the government in Somalia is perceived by many as puppets for foreign agents who influence politics in the country from a small closed, secure and exclusive area around the airport in Mogadishu. Norway is one of the countries that is perceived to be part of this, says the professor. These are some of the reasons the professor put forward as an explanation for why some Somalis support Al-Shabaab over the government, and why he believes it is far more difficult to fight Al-Shabaab than the government gives the impression. Ingiriis believes the best solution is to enter into negotiations with Al-Shabaab to find political solutions, instead of continuing with warfare. But this is a solution that is highly irrelevant for today’s current government.
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Somalia has gone to full-scale war on terror
