The Next Step in Somalia: Exploiting Victory Post-Mogadishu
Abstract
On 06 August, AI Shabaab announced that it would withdraw from the capital city Mogadishu due to recent offensive operations by African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces. This occurred after 5 frustrating years of AMISOM making very little progress in supporting Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), AMISOM's primary task is to restore order and a peaceful environment so the TFG can provide services to the Somali people, AI Shabaab's stated task is to turn Somalia into an Islamic theocracy with Sharia Law as its charter. For most of the last five years, AI Shabaab held the clear advantage in terms of terrain , popular control, freedom of movement and assistance from entities outside of Somalia but they were not able to dislodge AMISOM, Similarly, AMISOM had the combat power to dominate small parts of Mogadishu, but has only recently made significant progress against their adversary. The general intent of this paper is to analyze how AMISOM turned the corner and expelled AL Shabaab after 5 years of stalemate and what they and their supporters in the US and Europe must do to complete the mission,
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 23, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA601449
Entities
People
- Paul E. Roitsch
Organizations
- Marine Corps University