Imperialism cannot control the situation in Somalia
Featured image: damages in the outskirts of Mogadishu after the attack of Al-Shabaab on August 21. Source: Garowe online.
There are reports of many actions by Al-Shabaab against the Somalian State during the last month. In many of them there are numerous casualties among the States armed forces and the actions are increasingly approaching the capital Mogadishu.
At the beginning of August there was an attack against a military base in Balad, just 30 kilometers away of Mogadishu. The number of casualties has not been revealed, but there are reports of huge casualties among the State’s troops. A few days after, another military base was attacked close to the capital, in Elasha Biyaha, just 15 kilometers away from Mogadishu. Reportedly there were again lot of casualties among the State troops and more military personnel has been deployed at the outskirts of Mogadishu, being on alert due to a possible presence of Al-Shabaab combatants. During the night of August 21, there was an attack with a car bomb which killed five agents of the intelligence service of Somalia and injured 14 more. The same day there were artillery shellings which caused even more wounded among the State’s troops. Local media reports that all of these attacks are showing how the Somalian State has its enemy in its capital and this enemy has capacity to carry out coordinated operations.
These attacks by Al-Shabaab are expressions of the sharpening of contradictions within Somalia on which we have reported in several occasions. Despite these numerous attacks increasingly approaching to Mogadishu, the Somalian government is always reporting about supposed ‘triumphs’ against the Al-Shabaab troops. The government stated that since August 2022, it has eliminated at least 5,000 fighters of this organization and has freed 200 districts and villages. Despite those supposed victories, the government does not stop to sign new military agreements to receive more foreign troops in order to control the situation it is facing. Among those interventions is the one from the Security Council of United Nations, which recently has unanimously voted in favor to keep the military mission in Somalia, which is being carried out by troops of the African Union, having 12,626 troops deployed, including 1,040 police officers.
There are also other factors leading to doubting the official statements and figures: among those casualties of Al-Shabaab, are included numerous casualties in many bombardments and airstrikes. For example in February an attack which killed 30 militants was officially reported. However, research websites following airstrikes by Somali troops and mainly the Yankees, are reporting about numerous civilian casualties and other crimes against the people. Yankee imperialism has the biggest role as a criminal and murderer of the Somalian people. Yankee troops admitted that they have given ‘remote’ help to Somalian military operations which ended in murdering civilians. This has been denounced by the victims of those airstrikes and they have judicially claimed to held US responsible for that. Of course Yankee imperialism has refused to be considered as responsible and to apologize, even though it has admitted their participation in such crimes. Since the beginning of the 2000’s until 2024, the USA has carried out aproximately 300 drone attacks and commando operations. Also operations from other countries must be taken into account, such as the murder committed by the old Turkish State on March 18 against 23 civilians, including 14 children.
