A report from the U.N. revealed that al-Shabaab’s revenues are between $70 and $100 million per year, propelling it into the top tier of global jihadist funding trailing behind the Taliban, Hezbollah, FARC and Hamas.
The once ragtag Somalia-based al Qaeda affiliate has grown into an economic powerhouse, raising tens of millions of dollars in cash every year from a variety of schemes involving duties and fees levied at airports and seaports, taxes on goods and services, taxes in kind on domestic produce, jihad contributions, checkpoints and various other forms justified in terms of religious obligation, according to the July 18 report from the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea.
General Carter Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa Command said “I would say that the greatest risks right now in East Africa are Al-Shabaab and the violent extremists that they represent”.
Speaking to his own troops recently, Ham said: “Even if you don’t think the humanitarian need is compelling enough … to me there is a security angle to this which affords us an opportunity as a nation, as a collective group of nations, to really take an effort to undermine what Al-Shabaab is trying to do in Somalia.”
The Al-Shabaab organization “presents an increasingly acute regional and international threat,” according to the U.N. report. The monitoring group says despite the famine, infighting and some military defeats, “the economic health of Al-Shabaab is more robust than ever.”
Funds are being used to pay for fighters, weapons and ammunition and continued fighting against the fragile Somalia security forces, and African Union troops in the country.
“Al-Shabaab is evolving from an armed faction into a lucrative consortium of business interests, both within Somalia and abroad, whose members benefit from cartel-style trading practices, tax breaks and mutual facilitation. Moreover, there are indications that Al-Shabaab trading networks may also be used to camouflage charitable contributions from sympathizers in the Gulf States,” the report reads.
Al-Shabaab’s economic growth has emerged largely when it won control of the southern port town of Kismaayo and other nearby ports. The group generates an estimated $35 million to $50 million a year from port revenues. Another $30 million to $60 million a year comes from “taxes” on businessmen operating in marketplaces in the capital of Mogadishu and other towns.
The US and its allies are carrying out operations to deny Al-Shaba from profiting these areas. One of those operations is Kenya’s recent attack to Somalia which is expected to get a hold of the Kismayo sea port or at least deny shipments going to the port of Kismayo. One U.S. official who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the information said the plan was never Kenyan troops to enter to Kismayo it was for the TFG troops and its affiliate militias to capture the city of Kismayo but added that this is becoming unrealistic and risky.
The U.N. report offers extensive details on Al-Shabaab’s arms smuggling operations, as well as what the U.N. says are credible reports of potentially illegal arms shipments coming in by air and sea into southern Somalia and then being shipped to fighters throughout the country.
Source: The Nomad Times
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