somalia

This weekend, the United States conducted two raids against militant Islamists in Tripoli, Libya and Barawe, Somalia. Though the action in Tripoli appeared to be more successful—FBI and CIA agents nabbed Abu Anas al-Liby, a suspected leader of Al Qaeda—the significance of both raids lies less in their immediate success and more in their implications for American involvement in Africa.

Two U.S. raids in Africa show the United States is pressuring al-Qaeda, officials said on Sunday, though a failure in Somalia and an angry response in Libya also highlighted Washington's problems. In Tripoli, U.S. forces snatched a Libyan wanted over the bombings of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi 15 years ago and whisked him out of the country, prompting Secretary of State John Kerry to declare that al Qaeda leaders "can run but they can't hide."

Somalia said Sunday it was “not a secret” it is working with foreign governments to fight terror and described the country's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab militants as a threat to the world. Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdo was commenting after U.S. commandos launched a raid against Shebab militants in Somalia, in tandem with a strike against a wanted Al-Qaeda leader in Libya.

There is a growing view both from Nairobi and the cloistered, heavily defended corridors of Villa Somalia – the Somali government’s main compound here in Mogadishu – that al-Shabab’s Westgate Mall attack was an act of desperation. It was, says the theory, a lashing out by a movement on the ropes; a last-ditch attempt to prove its legitimacy and win supporters in the face of continued military pressure on the ground, a brutally damaging internal power-struggle, and a growing sense of irrelevance abroad.

Shortly after the massacre at the Westgate Mall in Kenya, the alleged terrorists, al-Shabab, began tweeting about their motivations from the now-suspended account @HSM_Press. A handful of accounts, most tweeting in Arabic, cheered on the terrorist unit still inside the mall. After tweeting a series of names of alleged gunmen still inside the Westgate Mall, a second account, @HSM_Press2, was quickly suspended by Twitter.

Abukar Abdulle Mohamed is a busy man. His three phones keep beeping away as he negotiates and shakes hands with a group of mainly middle-aged men. Fifty-four-year-old Mohamed is a livestock trader with more than thirty years experience and has just sold his tenth goat of the day at Hawl Wadaag livestock market in Mogadishu. But he isn’t holding wads of cash in his hands to show for the day’s sales.

The most recent installment in the CPD Perspectives series, "Cases in Water Diplomacy" is an edited volume of six case studies in water diplomacy. Released on the heels of the 10th annual World Water Day (observed March 22nd, as mandated by the United Nations General Assembly), this collection highlights the ever-growing importance of strategic water diplomacy in all regions of the world.

America has two distinguishable Muslim allies, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. These two Muslim allies can play a pivotal role in helping eliminate Al-Shabaab through soft and hard power, respectively...Saudi Arabia can flex is soft-power muscle in Somalia by doing two things: (1) using their Ulama to discredit the religious sway of Al-Shabaab, and (2) use its extensive experience in de-radicalizing its youth.

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