militant group - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

US targets al Shabaab fundraisers, money launderers with sanctions

THE U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on what it said was an international fundraising and money-laundering network for the al Shabaab militant group operating in Somalia. The sanctions targeted 16 entities and individuals across the Horn of Africa region, the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus, the Treasury said in a statement. The action, which follows U.S. sanctions against a separate network linked to al Shabaab in October 2022, freezes any U.S. assets of those targeted and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. It said al Shabaab, which Washington considers a terrorist group, generates over $100 million a year, including…

Oct

2023

By The African Mirror

South Africa checking if two of its citizens killed in Israel

NEWS

SOUTH Africa's government said that it was checking information from the Israeli embassy that two of its nationals had been killed in attacks by the militant group Hamas and called on Israel to provide Gazans with food and water. The attacks by Hamas inside Israel killed more than 1,300 people, mostly civilians. Israel has since responded with days of retaliatory attacks, pounding densely urbanised Gaza with air strikes and artillery fire and killing over 1,500 Palestinians. "We are currently verifying this," Clayson Monyela, a spokesperson for South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), said when asked about a local…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Al-Shabaab is just a symptom of Somalia’s tragedy – the causes are still in place

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

FOR at least 14 years now, the militant group Al-Shabaab has terrorised the southern region of Somalia. Its ambition is to impose a tyrannical dictatorship over the entire country through fear and brutality. To achieve its aims, it has sought to oust the Somali government and its foreign military allies. I have been a student of Somali political economy for over three decades. I predicted the collapse of the Somali state and political order 33 years ago. That analysis foretold the miserable conditions Somalis have endured since. The political and humanitarian catastrophe predates the terrorist group’s rise – thus, Al-Shabaab…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

At least 13 Somali soldiers killed after clash with al Shabaab

NEWS

FEISAL OMAR and ABDI SHEIKH AT least 13 Somali troops have died after the army attacked militant group al Shabaab in jungle and farms near the district of Afgoye northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, a military official said. Al Shabaab has battled since 2008 to overthrow Somalia's internationally-recognised central government and establish its rule, based on its own interpretation of Islamic law. "We left Afgoye district and attacked al Shabaab in the farms outside Afgoye," Major Mohamed Ali told Reuters, describing Wednesday's incident in the district about 30 km (19 miles) from Mogadishu. "We killed four militants and chased al…