Al-Shabab Gains Ground Following Ethiopia's Pull Out

Al-Shabab Gains Ground Following Ethiopia's Pull Out

November 11, 2016 - As the clock ticked past 11am and birds nestling on the short dry shrub trees chirped away, a large group of young men in camouflage uniforms and black face-wraps appeared from nowhere and marched towards an open clearing in the bush, their feet kicking up dust in the soft, sun-baked brown soil beneath.

Totalling more than 150 men and only their eyes visible, they made no eye contact or small talk among themselves as they lined up.

The men are part of al-Shabab's Special Forces gathered in this rebel base in southern Somalia to undergo final training before they dispatch to nearby towns in preparation for taking them over from African Union (AU) and Somali government troops.

The training base is about 10km outside the strategic town of Moqokori in the Hiiraan region, a town the al-Qaeda-linked group retook after Ethiopian troops withdrew last month.

It is a pattern that has been repeated many times recently across south and central Somalia.

Ethiopia has more than 4,300 soldiers in Somalia as part of African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) - a UN security council-mandated mission to combat the armed group.

The East African country also has thousands of other troops that are not part of AMISOM in Somalia.

Recently, the Ethiopians have been abandoning their bases in towns in southern Somalia; 10 towns in the last four months, four of them in the past four weeks, without notice or explanation.

"Jihad," shouts the group's commander under the watchful eyes of two of al-Shabab's most senior and well-known figures.

"Strength, honour," the fighters shout back, drawing admiring looks from their leaders.

This group of fighters - which includes medics, mechanics, explosives experts and suicide bombers - have been handpicked from al-Shabab's many battalions as the group seeks to retake territories it lost to Somalia's internationally recognised government and AMISOM.

Morale among the fighters appears sky-high as news reaches the training base of Ethiopia withdrawing from towns and al-Shabab taking them over without firing a single bullet or losing a fighter.

"The reason they [Ethiopia] invaded our country, the reason they came to Moqokori, was to harm the Muslim population," Sheikh Ali Mohamud Raage, the group's spokesman, a tall, bulky figure with red eyes and a greying beard, told the gathered fighters who were now sitting on the hot sand.

"They came here to mistreat and degrade our people and to stop them from worshipping Allah. But God chose you to defend His religion and the honour of the Muslim people," Raage said, as shouts of "God is great" from the fighters filled the midday air.

Source: AlJazeera