Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen simply known as al-Shabaab is a transnational Salafi-Wahhabi Jihadist militant organization. It is involved in the ongoing Somali Civil War, controlling a non-contiguous network of primarily rural areas in southern and central Somalia that some consider a quasi-state. The group refers to the territory under its control as the Islamic Wilayaat of Somalia. The Federal Government of Somalia does not recognize these titles or territorial claims. Al-Shabaab has invoked takfir to rationalize its terrorist attacks on Somali civil servants and civilians. It is, in a more limited capacity, active elsewhere in East Africa, and is the official branch of al-Qaeda in the region. Al-Shabaab has been designated as a terrorist organization by numerous countries. The militant group remains subject to international sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and other jurisdictions.
Formed in the mid-2000s as a youth militia within the wider military wing of the Islamic Courts Union, Al-Shabaab came to prominence during the 2006–2009 Ethiopian invasion and occupation of Somalia, during which it presented itself as a vehicle for the waging of armed resistance against the occupying Ethiopian army. In subsequent years, it gained popular support from Somalis and became a dominant force in south and central Somalia, defending large swathes of territory by fighting against the African Union Mission to Somalia and the Federal Government of Somalia, as well as the latter's transitional predecessor. Al-Shabaab gained international prominence due to its recruitment of foreign fighters. The group is presently the most wealthy Al-Qaeda affiliate in the world.
Between 2011 and 2013, a coalition of African Union forces, led by the Somali government, wrested a significant amount of territory from Al-Shabaab, including the capital city, Mogadishu. During the same period, the group was plagued by internal conflicts over its leadership and ideological direction, which intensified when, in February 2012, Al-Shabaab's leadership pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda. It suffered further military losses in 2014, as a result of Operation Indian Ocean, and the killing of its emir, Ahmed Abdi Godane. Several years thereafter, Al-Shabaab retreated from the major cities, but it remained influential in many rural areas, and it prioritized guerrilla attacks over territorial acquisitions.
It is responsible for many high-fatality attacks, including the 2013 Westgate attack, October 2017 Mogadishu bombings and the 2022 Somali Ministry of Education bombings. Apart from its activities in Somalia, the group also operates in East African neighboring countries, extending its insurgency to Kenya's border regions with its Jaysh Ayman wing and carrying out a major incursion into Ethiopia in 2022. Attendant to its recent resurgence, it was estimated to have increased its combat strength to between 7,000 and 18,000 fighters during 2022.
Al-Shabaab is also known as Ash-Shabaab, as well as Jaysh al-Usra in Somalia (Arabic: جيش العسرة في الصومال). The term Al-Shabaab means "The Youth" in Arabic. It has also referred to itself as the Islamic Wilayat of Somalia or the Islamic Emirate of Somalia, although it has not formally declared itself as an emirate. These are self-proclaimed titles and claims unrecognized by any Somali state authorities.
The Federal Government of Somalia often refer to Al-Shabaab as the Khawarij (Kharijites). The Somali government has instructed local media to refer to the militant group by the acronym UGUS (Somali: Ururka Gumaadka Ummadda Soomaaliyeed; English: The Group that Massacres the Somali People). Journalists have faced pressure following the directive issued by Somalia's National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), while al-Shabaab has threatened those who use the term.
Although it is unclear when Al-Shabaab was formed, it is understood to have originated as a youth militia within the military wing of the Islamic Courts Union, an umbrella group which provided de facto governance in much of Somalia until the country was invaded by Ethiopia in December 2006. From 2007 to 2008, Al-Shabaab established itself as an independent actor, gaining prominence as a vehicle of armed resistance against the Ethiopian military occupation. Many of its early leaders and members previously belonged not only to the Islamic Courts Union but also to the older Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, a group founded on the tenets of Islamism and opposition to clannism. Many early Al-Shabaab leaders had also been trained as mujahideen in Afghanistan and practiced the Hanafi school of jurisprudence.
Al-Shabaab adheres to a radical militant interpretation of the Wahhabi ideology, and generally advocates a form of jihadism with transnational aims, linking local grievances to the plight of Muslims worldwide. According to the International Crisis Group, Salafism has been a core unifying principle of Al-Shabaab, although this principle is not interpreted uniformly by the group's members and leaders. The ideology of Al-Shabaab represents a fusion of the transnational Salafi Jihadist trend in Somalia, which collaborated with the Takfir wal-Hijra group, with the hardline elements of Wahhabi groups in Somalia. Certain elements of Jama'at al-I'tisam supported the setting up of early al-Shabab training camps, and its most hardcore faction merged into Al-Shabaab in late 2004.
Following its pan-Islamist political outlook, incursions into Somalia by Ethiopia – and later by Kenya, the United States, and others – are viewed by Al-Shabaab as part of a wider American-sponsored war against Islam. For instance, Al-Shabaab denounced the 2006 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia as a "Zionist-Crusader aggression", in which the United States "unleashed its 'hunting dogs' in Ethiopia and Kenya" by deploying "the world's crusader forces" to counter the rise of the Islamic Courts Union. However, this globalist framework is not universal within the group, an ideological fault-line which has sometimes fostered factionalism and internal conflict. Much of Al-Shabaab's Somali support base sees as its primary goal the establishment of a stable Islamic state inside Somalia, or, more ambitiously, inside the irredentist concept of Greater Somalia, uniting the ethnic Somali populations of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti. Other domestic supporters are concerned primarily with clan-related and local objectives, and are therefore prone to infighting and shifting alliances.
However, these ideological differences can accommodate broad opposition within the group to common adversaries – notably, opposition to external intervention in Somalia, often publicly expressed in quasi-Qutbist terms; and opposition to the internationally recognised Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), which, lacking a basis in religious (Sharia) law, is seen to lack legitimacy. As part of its opposition to the Somali federal government, Al-Shabaab declares takfir against FGS and justifies attacks against FGS government officials and civilian supporters. Al-Shabaab hardliners broadly adhere to a Takfiri interpretation of the principle of al-wala' wal-bara' (lit. 'loyalty and disavowal'), insofar as it prescribes dissociation from non-Muslims and those perceived as apostates.
A major component of Al-Shabaab's ideology is Islamic expansionism, which is incorporated into its Pan-Islamist cause. Ummah themes warning Somalis of the plots from international NGOs, alongside "Christian Crusaders" (United States, Ethiopia, AMISOM) and their collaborators, are a regular feature of the movement's propaganda. During the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, Al-Shabaab positioned itself as a militia under the Islamic Muqawwama (resistance coalition) of the Islamic Courts Union, taking the most hardline stance against the invading "Christian crusaders". After the collapse of the ICU in 2007, Al-Shabaab launched its own independent insurgency, gaining popular support from Somalis for defending the country from American imperialism and foreign occupation. al-Qaeda began enhancing its co-operation and support to Al-Shabaab during this period, which enabled the movement to establish itself as the strongest military power in Southern Somalia. Al-Shabaab regards Somalia's Federal Government as an illegitimate "apostate" entity backed by foreign invaders.