Al shabaab vanquished

I have always fancied JRR Tolkien's masterpiece of the Lord of the Rings. It's by far the most accomplished mythical work of all time. The symbolism is phenomenal, the legendary tussle between good and evil, hope and desperation alike. The rise and fall of the mighty necromancer, Sauron only firmly reminds us that light will always endure against the dark no matter how long it takes . Today's middle earth encounters many challenges of varying degrees, the people inhabiting this realm have a new enemy which could possibly disturb world peace. Mankind will be a thing of the past, should brothers go up in arms against each other in the name of religion. Terrorism has taken centre stage in world news and politics, and contnues to be an intriguing issue with each passing day. Fortunately terrorists are fighting a losing battle as witnessesed in several parts of the world. Once teeming with young militants from across the globe, Al shabaab today is a far cry from what it was in it's heyday. Back at it's infancy it appeared not to pose the slightest threat to humanity as characterised by most unions and revolutoinist groups albeit it's main objective at the time was to topple the transitional federal government (TFG). It was formed by the alliance of a several sharia courts under the name Islamic Courts Union. The constant civil wars in Somalia facilitaed the growth of Al shabaab and a myriad of rebel groups, since there were no proper mechanisms to inhibit their proliferation. They basically became more potent with time, acquiring arms from the hostile Middle East particularly Yemen which lies in close proximity to the horn of Africa. Contraband and other cache of smuggled commodities in the form charcoal, sugar and animal products genereated alot of income to the sect, needless to say Al Qaeda also abetted the outlaws financially for the simple reason of being an affiliate front on African soil. This meant the terrorist group had the financial muscle to recruit more fighters and acquire even more complex arsenal. By 2010 it had acquired significant chunks of territory thanks to it's large infantry and stockpiles. Somalia had and still has within it's boundaries several potent rebel groups like "Mujaheedin". Though not possessing large troops, they became the most immediate albatross to Al shabaab and as a result most were annihilated and others assimilated into the movement. With iron fists the movement became the dominant force and perpetrated violence and torture towards civilians in an attempt to implement the strict version of sharia law. This was the case until the Kdf  incursion into Somalia became a reality in a mission dubbed as "operation Linda nchi". Alot of thought was put into sending troops into Somalia by the grand coalition government and the greater good far outweighed the probable setbacks. After thorough contemplation and a nod from Somalian authorities the operation commenced. It was necessary by all accounts because Al shabaab had apparently become a threat to Kenya as well, sneaking in through her porous borders and kidnapping unsuspecting foreign tourists, a move seen by many as an act of confrontation. Kenya which significantly relies on tourism was on the brink of losing millions of dollars at the expense of terrorist, and had limited time to mend the mess, an assault was inevitable. The conditions in Somalia were torrid according to most Kdf soldiers, with mines going off all over, and constant ambushes from Al shabaab insurgents wielding assault rifles particularly the widespread Ak 47. It appeared as though the battle would in no way favour Kdf, reason being their adversaries had a vivid geographical understanding of the area and were colossal in numbers. But even during these times the terrorist group lost territory and hundreds of fighters in open battles. The Kdf onslaught was given a big boost from U.S government but later joined arms with African Union troops (amisom). This obviously meant a larger infantry and a bolstered fire power, but Al shabaab's resilience was equally impressive. It still carried out several retaliatory attacks on troops and Somalia government key installations often with devastating outcomes. The war had to be tactical rather than just open combat on the battlefield, their life force had to be attenuated. The last nail on the casket came when key ports were seized by Amisom troops, crippling Al shabaab from accessing trading routes and subsequently choking financial sources. This led to a domino effect and by 2013 the terrorist group had lost large swathes of land and witnessesed member defections due to internal wrangles. Death of key figures particularly Ahmed Godane and loss of funding heaped more misery to the already wounded group. Al shabaab had met it's Waterloo and resolved to carrying out guerilla type of attacks on civilians and AU troops. Since their troops were greatly diminished, their strategy was to conduct attacks in small pockets evading detection from the ever present drones.  This move of desperation has been termed by security experts as the "the death of Al shabaab". In fact the terrorist organisation avoided open combat with amisom on several occasions but infiltrated into Kenya and attacked innocent civilians demanding that Kdf be withdrawn from Somalia, an act of cowardice. Today the organisation tries to recruit young Kenyans from the madrasas to the streets of Nairobi to join their "armed struggle", a hoax most people have perceived thanks to awareness campaign through press. It's becoming increasingly harder for Al shabaab to adjust to the status quo, and it's very existence has been cast into further doubts because two fractions can't pretty much agree whether to maintain Al queda ties or defect to the tantalising jihadist outfit, the Islamic state. The AU on the other hand is all but planning to conduct the final assault on the southern region of Somalia currently under the realm of the millitants. Recently the the terrorists posted a video clip of their adventures in the wild, hunting game in a scenic landscape which the narrator revealed to be Kenya. They would kill and skin wild game then eat the roast meat, urging potential recruits that there's no hunger in jihad. Perhaps this was an attempt to appeal to the young westerners of the safari and adventures that awaits them, should they join Al shabaab. According to security experts and psychologist, this shows that the group is in trouble, and is dwindling in numbers. It is estimated that only 30 foreigners are currently within the group, something Al Shabaab continues to refute claiming they actually have in excess of 3000 foreign fighers. The video is outdated and appeared to have been shot in Boni forest where KDF forces recently carried out a swoop, flushing out all remnants of Al shabaab. The mission could soon be over but at the end of it all, it shall be of great worth having liberated Somalia, and effaced the threat of terrorism both in the East and horn of Africa.

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