Somali ‘Awakening,’ potential solution to al Shabaab menace

he East African
January 24, 2011

Mukhtar Roobow " Abu Mansur"

Is a Somali “Awakening” in the making? 

There are indications that a movement similar to the Sunni Awakening movement, which began in western Anbar Province of Iraq in mid 2000, is about to arise in Somalia.

As the violence peaked, Sunni tribal leaders, previous supporters of the al Qaeda islamist militant group, rebelled because they realised that the outfit was threatening their way of life and existence.

Instead of fighting the American forces in their region, they cooperated with them in taking on the al Qaeda and soon, the movement spread around the country.

Now Somalia could be the scene for a similar “Awakening.”

To their chagrin, international jihadists are learning as Osama Bin Laden did in the 1990s, that Somalis care more about their clans than the Global Jihad.

Analysts are convinced that funding a Somali Awakening, an idea that is already being circulated in Washington DC and Addis Ababa, would bear more fruits and the al Shabaab militia could turn into a nucleus of the future Somali Armed Forces. 

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