How do the Somali Shebab jihadists operate and how do they obtain weapons? This is the question posed by the independent Somali study group Hiraal Institute in a very detailed investigative report published on Sunday 20 February. A quasi-governmental political structure, millions of dollars of budget and extensive commercial activity: these are some of the revelations of this work.
The Shebab group is not just a guerrilla force carrying out operations from the countryside: the Hiraal institute report shows that it is first and foremost a real government, with an emir and deputies, and sorts of “ministries”: finance, defence, police and intelligence…
An estimated budget of 100 million dollars…
And then, it is also a budget, estimated by the institute at 100 million dollars per year, collected essentially by a forced tax levied on Somali inhabitants and traders, including in government areas. Of these 100 million dollars, 24 are dedicated to the purchase of armaments, that is to say 2 million per month, says the report. This money circulates in cash or even in bank accounts, via payments by telephone or the Islamic system of the hawala.
To arm itself, the group of course uses battlefield seizures and traffickers, who have been well organized for a long time in Somalia. But also corrupt officials and soldiers. And intermediaries who buy on the black market, especially in Yemen, from where they organize crossings through the Gulf of Aden to deliver weapons. And finally, when it comes to explosive components, this is often done via the legal market for agricultural products.
Revise the arms embargo
To fight against this organization, the Hiraal Institute recommends a battery of political measures, but also a revision of the arms embargo which, he says, in place for thirty years, has now proved its ineffectiveness.
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