Why Ethiopia's invasion in somalia is to blame the rise of al-shabaab

By : Moustapha jaafuli

Every epidemic has an early signs & symptoms to detect before it spreads throughout the body cells. if cautious prevention is not immediately taken, it might reach a stage of persistence where any of the antibiotics that was meant to eliminate the virus becomes irreversible or not helpful at all.

The al-Qaida affiliate Al-Shabaab has missed an earlier prevention before it became one of the deadliest terrorist group in Somalia and beyond the border countries with Somalia for almost a decade. The region had faced Africa’s longest serving terrorist and most resilient insurgency in its history.

Ethiopian forces backed by US ousted  the Islamic  union courts  in late 2006 while invaded the vast majority of the country , as a consequence of atrocities committed by Ethiopian forces during their early invasion in Somalia had been the source of their increasing and led the group’s existence into the country.

The rise of Al-shabaab

A very small group led by ADAN HASHI AYROW the founder of al-Shabaab who was later been  killed in a US drone attack has re-emerged some  of the scattered militants of the  Islamic court union (ICU) in the form of resistance movement against the Ethiopian invasion  in Somalia , they instantly began to register overwhelming number of  youngsters who volunteered for the sake of the nation to fight alongside with al-Shabaab.

Fortunately  the Group have seen tremendous  opportunity to take by considering the mistrust and the bitter that standoff between the two countries over several issues including the territorial dispute.

Somalia national army invaded Ethiopia and captured vast majority  of the  disputed area in ogaden region which Somalia claims its ownership. In the late  of 70s the two nation  have had  a deadly war which killed over  15,000  including 7,000 Ethiopian , 4,00 Cuban ,100 south Yemen and 33 USSR  soldiers who were allied with Ethiopia against Somalia while  Somalia  alone lost over 6,000  soldiers.

Somalia invension in ethiopia 

Somalia's invasion to Ethiopia 

Somalia believed that Ethiopia acquired ogaden illegally by the support   of the post-colonial  ‘’British’’  who handed over  its land under the angalo –Ethiopian treaty signed  in berlin by Ethiopia emperor Menelak 2 and British in1897.

Since then  the tension between the two countries has been  raising and finally led Somalia to invade Ethiopia in 1977-1978 ,  after the war ended both countries halted their  diplomatic relations and started proxy war by keep arming  rebels against one another until both regimes overthrown  in 1991 by anti-government rebels supported by them.

 from 1991 -2006 Somali had been facing civil wars which warlords controlling most of central and southern  regions until Islamic courts removed them and declared to rule the country with sharia law.

in December 3 2006  Ethiopia troops invaded Somalia to remove the Islamic union court  who used to control  half of the country  for almost a year , Ethiopia which is Christian dominant country  believed the Islamic militants were posing major threat to its national security so they have to take immediate action .

The so called war on terror backed by US has begun in Somalia despite the vast majority of Somalians at that time believed that Ethiopia has violated the country’s national sovereignty  through  invading many parts of Somalia . “Therefore, they had the right to defend their country from the Ethiopian aggression which forced thousands to fled their homes.

Mogadishu were under serious attacks between Ethiopian troops and the militants for almost two years. The siege resulted more casualties on the civilian, wide displacement, destruction, whereby Human rights watch blamed Ethiopia for killing civilians and caused over a million people to displaced internally.

Amid the anger and the frustration of the people; “al-Shabaab” has gotten a golden chance to mingle into the society by spreading their extremism ideology through nationalists stand point. in a very short time the group have gained unprecedented support from the community due to mistrust among the society had for Ethiopia forces. The prominent aim of their struggle was not just driving out the Ethiopian troops backed by US Government and the transitional federal government of Somalia.

in additionally, the group has finally succeeded of seizing such a large territory in central and the southern regions of Somalia after long combat with Ethiopia and transitional federal government of Somalia “TFG”.

 in 2009 Ethiopia invasion has come to an end and lastly pulled out its troops from Somalia that left thousands to get killed.

In conclusion, Removing the moderate Islamic fighters was the mistake while letting al-Shabaab to become full flag terrorist in the region.

After a while al-Shabaab leadership declared allegiance with Al-Qaida by becoming the first offshore branch of al-Qaida in east Africa. 

Author bio

Name: Moustapha abtiyo

 Regional security analysts in counter-terrorism and intelligence

Based in Mogadishu- Somalia

jaafuli65@gmail.com