Somalia and the Islamic State by Khalid Hassan Yusuf

Somalia and the Islamic State.

In the northeast of Somalia, there are armed confrontations with the Islamic State for East and North Africa- ISIS, which is in Somalia, which includes a large number of Arab, African and Asian nationalities, gathered by a geographical spot in Somalia represented in Eastern Governorate, which is a large and large area in its geographical area And overlooking the coasts of the navalIn both the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, which resulted in the province as a trench with a large number of political and tribal conflicts in the northeastern governorates of Somalia.

It is known that this province was targeted by armed movements of Islam, the Somali politician since 1991, for example the Islamic Union Organization, which was taken from Bossaso, a center for it, and through the Al-Shabab movement that has taken from the Glagala Heights has been home to it since 2004, against the background of a tribal dispute between Warsangeli tribe and Majeerteen,The first was left behind the Al -Shabab movement, while the second took the Canton Garowe administration as its political arm.

ISIS took control of many lands in Eastern Governorate in Somalia and set up its strongholds in the rugged mountainous areas for years, while the Canton did not work a serious confrontation of the reality of the geographical expansion that the organization has practiced over the past years, and then this led to its acquisition of a large bloc of supporters Among the people.

You see where those in charge of Canton were during those years in which ISIS extended its control over those lands؟!
When the organization targeted the Canton repeatedly, not to mention it from the civil peace and targeting civilians in its operations and terrifying them constantly, not to mention its financial extortion of tribes and commercial milieu and imposing it on their policy and administration in Eastren Governorate.

It must be absorbed that ISIS has become part of the Somali internal conflict, especially the continuous historical tribal conflict between the Ali Suleiman clan, which contributed to the presence of ISIS on its territory, in light of its conflict with the Osman Mahmoud clan, which led to the creation of a state of political and military alliance between the clan and the political organization The extremist is religiously, and then pushed The same context is other clans to turn to the same direction.

Among the manifestations of that historical tribal conflict was the killing of former Somali President Abdelrashid Ali Sharmarke, who is from the Osman Mahmoud clan at the hands of the soldier Saeed Yusuf Ismail, who is from the Ali Suleiman clan, against the background of a tribal tendency, and how many wars and confrontations took place between the two clans of Osman Mahmoud and Ali Suleiman, considered translation Actual to keep the long conflict.

The question is why did those in charge of the Canton called the Puntland chose to confront ISIS at this time؟!
What cannot be considered as just a passing coincidence, as much as it represents a timing that was chosen accurately and a political studied.
Not to mention the deliberate work to strike the sovereignty of Somalia in the killing of the refusal of coordination with the Somali government and its transcendence on the ISIS file, and the state of political conflict over the supreme Somali interest.

The background behind this came as a political investment attempt to support the external, after Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud Canton was surrounded by a political and economic neighbor and cut off the grants coming from the international community towards the region, and the arrival of relations between them to a dead end. between A neighbor and the outside world under the war against ISIS.

A neighboring action came as an attempt to escape forward and cut the road for President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud, in light of his political struggle with those in charge of the Garowe Canton, who represent a political challenge for him, especially since there is a difference in the content of the upcoming presidential electoral process, and the particles it contains, especially And that both parties work in his wayIn order to prepare for the upcoming presidential elections.

Also, the purpose of confronting ISIS at this time comes against the background of covering the existing conflict between the Khatumo administration and the people of the Maakhir region on the one hand with the separatist canton in northern western Somalia, where there is a state of declared coordination between Garowe and Hargeisa, regarding the narrowing of the screws on the unitary forces in the north Somalia, and in light of the fear of Cantons And Hargeisa would cut off the units in northern Somalia, the road and the reality of the political mutilation they had previously used to.

Also, the procedure or war with ISIS came to serve the dismantling of the canton, and a desire to overcome the Somali government in order to directly political dealing with the international community, in isolation from coordination with the Somali federal government, which sought to subjugate the canton to its political control, especially since there is a state of personal political conflict Between President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud and the one who is on the Canton of Garowe Saeed Abdullahi Deni, and his significance is competing for the upcoming presidential elections, after he deprived President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud, the Governor of Garowe Saeed Abdullahi Deni, from the position of Prime Minister in the past.

The confrontations between ISIS and the Canton of the Puntland Canton militia confirmed that the military cost is very large, as thousands of militants were sent to fight ISIS, and many rural areas have become as a theater for military confrontations, and air participation by American aviation against ISIS, and directly directed by the American President Donald Trump,In addition to other external roles represented in coordination with both Ethiopia and the Arab Emirates.

On the theater of operations, ISIS lost many of its elements from the countries of Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan, North Africa and others, and its losses reached hundreds of dead, not to mention a similar reality among its Somalis circles, and they are subjected to a great retreat in the act of that The confrontations, however, the size and spread it reached ISIS, and its military capabilities and its possession of a very large number of drones and missiles targeting military aircraft, affirmed the extent of the political and security recklessness that the Canton Canton administration ended.

In conclusion, it is not known how political will to resolve the conflict with ISIS, will it continue to the end and work to put an end to the future of the extremist religious organization؟ As for the matter will reach the reality of a relative confrontation that ends to a certain extent؟
In turn, the Somali government is not certain whether it will make its obligations to participate in the overthrow of ISIS, while a state of sympathy and popular support is evident to confront religious extremism.

What should not be avoided and overlooked is to address the conditions that paved and established the presence of Al-Shabab organizations and ISIS in the Somali lands, and in Eastren Governorate in particular.
Whereas, a former head of the component canton, represented by the person of Adey Musa, who brought a foreign mining company, caused the extraction of minerals from the Majiyahan Heights adjacent to the city of Bossaso.

This resulted in the refusal of the people to that infringement of its natural resources, especially since this measure was just a state of looting and an attempt to wealth of the personal did not have the slightest related to economic development, and the size of the armed attack on the people revealed those frenzied efforts, which were resisted, but the movement of Al-Shabab they in turn entered the conflict lineIt was lined up by the people who descended from the Warsangeli tribe.

In another direction and similar, the Islamic State- ISIS benefited from the state of congestion that existed for the people of the heights of Mis confirmed and those from the Majeerteen tribe, who reached the reality of the grievance to try to establish their own canton Their areas suffer from the reality of developmental marginalization Economically and socially.

This requires that the state of discrimination, corruption and organized looting be exceeded, by returning to the use of official channels, which in turn pushes the people to resort to the use of religious and terrorist extremist and terrorist forces, in order to create a state of political and military balance.
And that the donor countries of Somalia and the Mogadishu government refrain from the state of material support, which are harnessed to a political trend by the existing cantons in Somalia, which deal with tools, including discrimination and marginalization towards the people, which ultimately leads to creating an attractive environment for religious and terrorist extremism.

There is another party, in turn, working on political investment and playing on contradictions, and works to support Al-Shabab organizations and ISIS in Somalia, in order to hit the Somali government and Canton, of the Puntland, and this direction is a representative in the separatist canton in Hargeisa, Somalia, which provides supply and supply facilities for these extremist forces And terrorist, in an attempt to obtain from his opponents in Somalia, in order to create justifications for external recognition.

Khalid Hassan Yusuf

(Edited by بكرى ابوبكر on 02-11-2025, 11:31 AM)
(Edited by بكرى ابوبكر on 02-12-2025, 04:56 PM)

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