Good The Al-Shabaab Militant Group Essay Example

The al-Shabaab militant group initially called the harakat shabaab al-mujahidin (movement of striving youths), was formerly the military wing of the Somali council of Islamic courts. The group overhauled most of southern parts of Somalia in 2006. The group forcefully imposes strict sharia laws to the local occupants and punishes whoever breaks the laws. The group was formed from Islamic courts union (ICU) when the union broke into smaller factions after it was defeated in 2006 by the transitional federal government (TFG) and their Ethiopian allies who helped transitional federal government combat al-Shabaab. Since then al-Shabaab has been engaged in constant combat against the TFG and the African union mission to Somalia.
The al-Shabaab group has been proclaimed as a terrorism organizations by several countries as Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. It is approximated that they their total member numbers range from 200 to 300 trained militants with most of the militants being recruited from Yemen, the Swahili, and Sudan and from Somalia. The group is located and based in Somalia and was formed in 2004 by Moktar Ali Zubeyr famously known as ‘Godane’ and co-founded by Hassan Dahir Aweys. The group is primarily funded by selling of illegal charcoal in Mogadishu and through poaching of elephants for its valuable ivory. This has led to killings of both elephants and the rangers that guard them. It is also suspected that the group have exterior links to other terrorist movements such as Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram. It is suspected that they help fund each other. The al-Shabaab has been accused and proven of being responsible for tens of thousands of killings and terrorist attacks. They have also claimed responsible for terrorist attacks and suicide bombings such as Kenyan bus attack and the September 9/11 attack.

Work cited

"Al-Shabaab - Terrorist Groups." Al-Shabaab - Terrorist Groups. Nctc, 6 Mar. 2014. Web. 8 Feb. 2015. <http://www.nctc.gov/site/groups/al_shabaab.html>.
"Al-Shabaab Militant Group." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 14 July 2013. Web. 8 Feb. 2015. <http://www.cfr.org/somalia/al-shabab/p18650>.