On August 29, US forces carried out their 21st raid this year in Somalia. A brief press release of the African Command, AFRICOM, announced the raid on the Somali Youth and Al Qaeda, which tried to establish an extremist entity in the country. The press release did not specify the quality of the aircraft used, the locations that were accurately hit in the raid, nor the identities of those killed. As the previous press releases claimed, the bulletin said the raid did not kill any civilian.
Although the war on unmanned drones in Somalia has been secreted, the number of US raids in Somalia over the past year and a half has increased markedly, and according to many Somali analysts and officials, and many dissidents from the Somali Youth Organization, The most effective tool in the face of youth organization. And contributed to hamper the ability of young people to communicate among themselves, which created a state of distrust and skepticism among its members and restricted the movement of leadership.
The surge in drone strikes in Somalia came after President Donald Trump agreed to policy changes and ended the ban on such raids by former President Barack Obama. In March 2017, the Trump administration considered parts of Somalia to be an "effective hostile action zone", where restrictions on beatings were relaxed.
Increased freedom of action
By September last year, the Trump administration had approved new UAV targeting rules, which called for "principles, standards and procedures," which removed many of the restrictions imposed by the previous Obama administration, and after the Defense Department increased its freedom in Unmanned drone strikes on Somalia, the CIA did the same, launching a drone war on North Africa. According to a New York Times report over the weekend, the CIA will conduct covert drone raids in North Africa from a base that has been expanded in the African Sahara region and by wide powers, once previously restricted by the Obama administration.
The recent raid in Somalia in the southwestern part of the country killed three unidentified people from the youth organization, according to AFRICOM, but the idea that the US air force is necessary to fight 5,000 fighters with old Russian rifles seems surprising, Although local forces trained by US experts have proved unable to cope with a depleted pattern of ground operations by young people.
Interest in US interests
But what is prompting the powerful government in Mogadishu to pay attention to American interests? Although the United States' war against extremists in North Africa was the focus of the press last year, the chaos in Somalia was the centerpiece of the US war against terrorism. The youth organization pledged allegiance to al Qaeda in 2012, and in recent years a common base To the parties in northern Somalia, raising Washington's fears that this base could become a center for international terrorists. Despite the current Pentagon debate on a significant reduction in US troop numbers and a reduction in the number of bases on the African continent, Somalia remains one of two African states where the United States will maintain a strong military presence.
Although air strikes and ground attacks can reduce the ability of young people to launch attacks, Somalia can not establish security without the help of establishing sustainable state institutions. Therefore, state-led efforts will be led by the US State Department and the United States Agency for International Development, Local government institutions and Somali civil society, and provide basic services such as education and health care. But as the State Department's authority diminishes, the Trump administration has given the Pentagon the chance to take the lead in Somalia. "Unmanned drone strikes may have a goal, but there is no alternative to a political strategy," said Ken Menghus, an expert on Somali affairs at David Sun College.
In the aftermath of the Black Hawk disaster in 1993, in which 18 Americans were killed and 73 injured in a bloody battle in Mogadishu, US policymakers decided not to engage in direct intervention in Somalia. When President Obama came to power, he increased the number of US troops in Somalia, As well as air strikes, but according to the "principles, standards and procedures" has been increased air strikes on Somalia by drones. Afrikom said the raids were aimed at young and middle-level youth leaders. One of the most prominent leaders killed by the raids was Ahmed Abdul Ghudan.
Detectives for the organization, who asked not to be identified because of security reasons, said targeting planes for commanders made them hysterical and refused to approach mobile phones for fear of being targeted. "The idea was that increased raids forced young people to deploy their leadership in different places and to decentralize decision-making," he said.
Young leaders have strengthened their own security procedures, have become more skeptical of civilians living in their areas, and there have often been fights among young people themselves as a result of the suspicion that one of them conveyed information to the Americans.
Fearing fewer casualties and more dissidents, young people have recruited more fighters, especially in areas where Americans are present. In Basra, a small village in central Somalia near Mogadishu, the youth organization has grown from 50 in the fall of 2016 To 600 by February this year.
At the same time, things are changing in Mogadishu itself, and although it was a very dangerous city, it lived long without youth attacks. Between October and the end of February, the city was not hit by any car bombs. AFRICOM says US planes have hit a car bomb in the city.
US and UN advisers in Somalia described the country as one of the most complex environments for Western efforts to build a state: Somalia is involved in ever-changing tribal problems and conflicts. The long-term war with the youth organization has led to an economy that has made some Somali elites benefit from the flow of foreign aid, so they have been maintaining the status quo.
Kristina Goldbaum is a freelance journalist based in East Africa
Exploitation of efforts
Successful state-building efforts in Somalia require substantial US investment, but the State Department does not have the capacity to deploy its own staff in Somalia. They are unable to move beyond the Green Zone in Mogadishu. Military officials, many of whom Inside and outside Somalia every four or six months, have become the face of American diplomacy. Last July, President Trump Donald Yamamoto Hoon, a veteran African diplomat in Africa, appointed an ambassador to Somalia, signaling a renewed focus on the importance of diplomatic leadership in US diplomatic missions.
US counterterrorism and state-building efforts seem to be useless in Somalia, said Andrew Brunton, deputy director of the AtlanticCouncil. "There is no one who knows how to use US efforts to get things right, but everyone wants to solve the problems," he said. It ends up adding more complexity to things. Proton said Somalia had suffered a "toxic mix" of the worst instincts of the Pentagon and the State Department. "The worst instinct of the State Department is to reduce the state budget to a minimum. The Pentagon's worst instinct is the idea of African solutions to African problems, which means America wants to kill bad people in Somalia without risking the lives of its soldiers."
Successful state-building efforts in Somalia require significant US investment, but the State Department does not have the capacity to deploy its own staff in Somalia. They are unable to move outside the Green Zone in Mogadishu. Consequently, military officials, many of whom move into and out of Somalia every four or six months, have become the face of US diplomacy.