the threat is there
so we will remain vigilant what else
is trying to do is to complete their
morphing into
a proper guerrilla force
[Music]
so
we are in mogadishu the capital of
somalia which is a word that's become
synonymous with war over the last 23
years because
that's how long no government has
controlled the entire territory of the
country
that's something that the international
community is trying to change they spend
a billion dollars a year here
supporting the federal government and
their fight against
al-shabab which is an affiliate of
al-qaeda
over the last few months the
government's actually had a lot of
success
against the militant group unlike it has
in the past so we've come here
to see and learn more about their fight
against al-shabab
even though somalia's hold on much of
the country is still iffy
this may be the only conflict in the
muslim world today
where international efforts have
successfully put islamist militants
on the back foot the fight is being
spearheaded by amisom which is a
grouping of african militaries
that are mandated by the united nations
to be here
they are supposed to both support the
somali government
but also to prevent the violence in this
failed state
from spilling over into their countries
when we arrived in mogadishu amisom and
the somali army
had just taken over al-shabab's last
stronghold
a coastal town called barawi they took
it without a fight
because al-shabab reportedly scattered
when they heard troops were on their way
this morning at five o'clock we advanced
and it took us only 30 minutes actually
45 minutes
to reach baraway we are now in bara we
have taken over
this specific field the ground here is
the exact ground
where al-shabab used to contact conduct
its execution
this kitchen of those they think we are
going against the sharia law
when the soldiers moved into barawi for
the first time in over two decades
the governor came out onto the main
square to get his hair cut
keeping a promise he'd made if he was
ever able to set foot in the city
this is the first time that the youth of
barawi have ever seen government
[Applause]
of amisom officials sms steal your
property we shall kill him
has come to make your children go to
school
to make your wives get good treatment in
hospitals
the attack on barawi has been long in
the making
amisom and somali forces had to push
through another al-shabab stronghold
called
kuruli back in march just to open the
road leading south
the united states has carried out at
least two operations in barawi since
2013.
the first targeted ikrima the man
thought to be the mastermind behind last
year's
westgate shopping mall attack in nairobi
kenya
where 67 people were killed
american navy seals attempted to raid a
criminal's coastal villa
but they were driven back after an
exchange of gunfire and failed to get
their man
but the second operation dealt a
considerable blow to al-shabab
when u.s airstrikes killed its
charismatic leader ahmed abdi gudhani in
september
this operation was a direct strike
against the al-shabab network
specifically the group's leader that
dealt a major blow
and probably the organization after him
is going to struggle
to remain as a cohesive entity
when the somali government managed to
regain control of mogadishu three years
ago
it marked a crucial turning point in the
battle against al-shabab
and tagalog
but as somalia shores up key territory
al-shabab has changed
strategy relying more on guerrilla
tactics that are harder for a
conventional force like
amisom to counter i mean the fighting
model really that they're now taking in
the last three years
is to move away from organized
conventional groups into very small
cells that can carry out hit and run
attacks suicide attacks
targeted assassinations and so on and
they've done that
with some success since the beginning of
this year they've killed five members of
parliament and there were a number of
suicide bombings they've attacked the
presidential palace
twice since the beginning of this year
they've attacked the high court
once they've attacked the parliament
all three branches of government they've
attacked the u.n compound
they've attacked the turkish embassy all
of that in this year
these repeated successful attacks run
counter to the image the somali
government
is trying to present we dropped in on
the prime minister at a press conference
where he was announcing the defeat
of al-shabab in barawi are you concerned
that because al-shabaab have given up a
lot of territory without
a fight that they're going to just
regroup and then attack your forces and
make it
difficult to hold that territory we know
the cause of
i will not give up until they are forced
to give up
we will stay vigilant and we
are aware of these tactics that they
will play
do you expect retaliation from al-shabab
for your latest
push into their territory well we always
expect
up responses and shabbat
enmity you don't think they'll be able
to muster
a massive response an attack on the
capital or other
areas that you've only recently taken
over and not fortified
what we know is the abilities
to strike have significantly gone down
you know these are people on the run
that doesn't mean that the
threat is not there the threat is there
because
there's cells maybe it's living cells in
you know the vicinity of mogadishu
so we will remain vigilant in addition
to that threat
the somali government faces the
challenge of establishing a rule of law
in barawi
something that until very recently had
been handled entirely by al-shabab
also app continues to offer
better governance in the areas they
control despite the fact that they are
exceptionally brutal but as long as you
don't
challenge them politically to live under
them is is not really horrendous as
as it may come to seen of course if they
convict you
of adultery they can stone you to death
which they have done
numerously and that's very brutal but
the fact of the matter is that
compared to the to their rivals they
seem to govern better
i think the somali government deserves
some credit for
defeating al-shabab from major towns in
somalia there are
strong signs showing that this country
is now
recovering from 20-something years of
fighting and
what we see right now is buildings all
over the place but also
now there is a lot more international
support for the somali government
that success is based on what appears to
be progress in the war
against al-shabab but al-shabab may
merely be changing
also has gone through an evolution they
started as a nationalist movement
fighting against invasion of ethiopians
after ethiopia withdrew
at the end of 2008 they ended up
controlling
largest piece of land in somalia and
then really
evolving from a nationalist movement to
more of a global jihadist movement
started to pledge allegiance to al-qaeda
and to bin laden
and that's when they started to also
lose popular
support among the somali people despite
losing territory
and support in somalia al-shabab will
remain an effective guerrilla force
with the somali government still so
dependent on the international community
for economic
and military support al-shabab is still
no less a threat
to the stability of somalia
[Music]
you