The Growing Regionalism of Harakat al-Shabaab

It was announced today that between 9 and 11 Kenyan’s who have conducted attacks in Kenya have had training within Somalia, a disquieting thought as Harakat al-Shabaab has announced the possibility of more focussed attacks on Kenyan soil in the near future.  In the meanwhile, Mustapha Ali, advisor to the UN has warned that the spillover of violence will continue to permeate Kenya unless many of the fundamental problems within Somalia are approached in a unified effort to stabilize and facilitate the urgent needs facing this tragic nation.

It is unfortunately no surprise to witness the ongoing influence of al-Shabaab within Kenya.  As Kenya contains the worlds largest refugee camps, the Dadaab camps of the North Eastern province, and one of the highest concentrations of the diasporic Somali community in Nairobi, Kenya is far enough from Somalia to provide protection to the vulnerable and close enough to hide those who are dangerous.  More importantly, Nairobi’s concentration of Somali refugees and migrants are in constant tension with the omni-presence of al-Shabaab.

It should be noted that al-Shabaab has positive roots within the country, as the military implementing partner of the Union of Islamic Courts, the locally derived and semi-successful solution to self-governance.  Perhaps had the international community been more supportive of the UIC, the fate of Somalia would have gone a different connection, yet deemed a terrorist organization, the international community turned away and left the UIC in a precarious position.  Eventually al-Shabaab became far more powerful than the UIC, and their extremist views of Islam faciliated only greater turmoil in the region.

Today, tens of thousands of Somali refugees have been displaced and suffered at the hands of this organization.  Yet while many Somalis are strongly against Shabaab, there are just as many who hope to see this group successful in its take over of Somalia.  Yet why?  Today an article was released in Forced Migration Review, in which I examined this problem.  While a brief mention of the methodology can be found here, my article makes two primary arguments regarding the conceptual basis of diasporic support of al-Shabaab.

1. Al-Shabaab promotes the ummah.  Within a country whose history has been long entrenched with clan divisions and tribal war, al-Shabaab promotes a vision of a Somalia founded entirely upon Islamic values, Islamic law, and Islamic government.  Under this argument, anyone can become a leader in the state, as his quality is measured entirely upon his quality as a muslim, not his tribal allegiance or clan history.

2. Al-Shabaab is socio-economically integrated within the Somali diaspora.  Among the Somali owned businesses in Nairobi, an incredible quantity of shops have received some level of support or are entirely operated by al-Shabaab.  Shabaab is likewise integrated within the global remittance flow of funds, and uses these funds for more than only military purposes, but provides social services within the community such as educational programming for children.

There are of course additional reasons as to why Shabaab recieves widespread support.  This support is far from universal however.  On multiple occasions, residents of Mogadishu have unified in protest against al-Shabaab.  Such instances have however been known to incite violence.