Al Shabab Leadership crises and the prospect for peace in Somalia

The peaceful amalgamation of the two Islamist factions Al Shabab and Hisbul Islam (HZ) is seen by some as a commendable act that will have significant postive ramification in the political landscape of Somalia.  Others see it as the nightmare that they always dreaded to face; but at least over one million internally displaced persons (IDPs), who live in the IDP corridor of Afgoi, breathed a heavy sigh of relief. The IDPs and the business community, who were worried about where they will end up if the talks between Alshabab and HZ fail, were the first to welcome Al Shabab fighters into their humanitarian corridor.

The wholesale daily bombardment of the Bakara market by the AMISOM forces compelled the business community to move most of their merchandise to the IDP home in the Afgoi corridor - the Bakara market is currently reduced to deal-making market. Al Shabab has laid its hands on a booming business that include telecommunications companies, power generators,   merchandise warehouses and the likes that has the potential to build up their war coffers massively and as a token of good gesture they instantly wrapped up the check points hitherto manned by Hizbul Islam.
The popular assumption that Al Shabaab's takeover of Hizbul Islam came in an easy way runs contrary to the facts the two movement’s history preserved. The merger was delivered by lengthy negotiations often coupled at times by arm twists that started soon after the birth of Hizbul Islam in January 2009. Al Shabab movement has all along deemed that the Islamist Mujahidin’s strategic objective (creation of an Islamic state) could only be achieved rapidly by a unified front and hence never accepted the birth of a rival Islamist movement.
Read More