Frustrated foreign fighters in al Shabab ranks break away

Thursday May 23, 2019
By IMENDE BENJAMIN

Returnees told the Kenyan military that a majority of fighters have already left.

KEEPING WATCH: African Union troops atop an armoured vehicle in Somalia. Image: File

Foreigners fighting alongside the al Shabab in Somalia are increasingly frustrated with the militant’s group treatment of their kind, military sources have said.

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Fighters who sneaked out of the militia said the group was prosecuting foreigners on flimsy grounds and putting them in frontlines to test their loyalty.

“They use Kenyans and other foreign fighters as pawns – for suicide missions, as foot soldiers on the frontlines, or they are assassinated for suspicion of spying for the enemy,” the returnees told Kenyan soldiers.

Returnees told the Kenyan military that a majority of them have already left Jilib and Buale heading towards the Lakta Belt.

The group is reportedly seeking to break away from al Shabaab core and form an independent outfit that is more globalist in its jihad agenda.

This follows the recent killings of influential al Shabaab commanders from Kenya and other foreign countries.

“The killings of the influential commanders from Kenya have generated a lot of concerns among its local and Somalia members. There is disquiet amongst Kenyans in al Shabaab after the death of a top Kenyan al Shabaab operative Ahmed Iman Ali alias Abu Zinira,” the returnees said.

Iman was among the commanders killed following an airstrike on an al Shabaab camp in Buale, Somalia, in late March 2019.

Before his reported death, Iman was the seniormost Kenyan al Shabaab commander attached to the media and propaganda wing of the organisation.

“It has lowered the morale of Kenyan foreign fighters within al Shabaab and reduced local recruitment and facilitation,” said the returnee.

“In fact, a section of Kenyan foreign fighters are reaching out to their family members and associates on the possibility of a return to Kenya.”

A number have already returned and are undergoing rehabilitation or are under the radar of counter-terrorism agencies.

The returnees told security agencies that al Shabab was also prosecuting foreign fighters within the organisation creating major wrangles within the militant group.

A reformed al Shabaab foreign fighter who came back into the country in 2018 lamented of discrimination against foreign fighters within the group.

The returnee said that al Shabaab’s explosives unit (Istish’ad) and foot soldiers component (Jabha) mostly use foreign fighters on the frontlines.

“A majority of us, as foreign fighters, wanted to pursue global jihad agenda in line with our affiliation with al Qaeda and believe that all Muslims across the world are brothers. But some influential al Shabaab leaders, who ride on clan power and who have long-term political ambitions, would not allow that,” he said.

The returnees told the Kenyan soldiers that they wanted them to focus on Somalia alone.

“We witnessed when they mistreated foreigners and learned that the al Shabaab war was largely clan-based and political that I chose to defect and surrender to Kenya,” another returnee said.

The former fighter said that other foreign fighters are either considering fleeing to other Jihad theatres, pledging allegiance to the Islamic State, or fleeing to the Lakta Belt.

The mistrust between Somali militants and foreign fighters within Al-Shabaab is not new.

In June 2011, a Comoros-born al-Qaeda operative Mohamed Harun Fazul is believed to have been sold out and killed after falling out with the al Shabaab leadership.

Then in 2013, al Shabaab gunmen are believed to have killed one of its most vocal foreign fighters Abu Mansuor Al-Amriki, an American from Alabama, after he openly castigated al Shabaab leadership style.

(Edited by O. Owino)

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