Mogadishu (Union, Agencies)
“Climate change” dealt a strong blow to the terrorist “Al-Shabaab” movement in Somalia, which may be fatal to their activities in the country, after the movement controlled several regions of Somalia for years and spread panic among the population.
Climate change turned into a curse that struck the “Al-Shabaab” movement with death, after drought prompted tribes that were subject to the terrorist organization affiliated with “Al-Qaeda” to rebel against it, and refused to pay taxes after the wells dried up, the land became desolate, and large numbers of livestock died, and death became Shooting is easier than starving to death.
Drought usually played a role in favor of terrorist groups, and helped them recruit more followers angry at their governments, similar to what is happening in the Lake Chad region.
The “Al-Shabaab” movement tried to exploit the drought and climate change to its advantage, by recruiting more children and followers, in exchange for food and a little money, which it collects from collecting taxes and royalties.
But “the magic has turned on the magician,” as the Somalis are fed up with the high taxes and royalties that the movement takes from them despite the famine striking the country, which the United Nations described as one of the worst famines over the past 70 years, facing the Horn of Africa.
And given its control over the local trade routes between states and regions, Al-Shabab imposes taxes on merchants to allow them to cross and pass to their destination, which aroused the discontent of the merchants and angered the clans.
The “Al-Shabab” movement exaggerated the provocation of the population, who were afflicted by drought and desertification, when it started filling in the wells, as a kind of scorched-earth policy.
These extremist practices pushed the clans, especially in the center of the country, to revolt against the movement with the support of the country’s president, Hussein Sheikh Mahmoud, who has a more strategic vision in combating the “Al-Shabab” movement intellectually and economically, and not only fighting it on the security and military fronts.
As the Somali army supported the clans in their revolution against the movement; Because he realizes that he can only preserve the liberated towns with the support of the local clans, who know the geography of the land better than the soldiers, and can protect their members and families against the guerrilla warfare that the movement is good at.
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