# Al-Shabaab **Al-Shabaab** ("the Youth") is an Islamist insurgent army in [[Somalia]] and [[Al-Qaeda]]'s formal affiliate in East Africa. It grew out of the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union, which controlled Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia for six months in 2006, and made its name fighting the Ethiopian troops who invaded that December. The United States designated it a foreign terrorist organization in 2008. It pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012. ## What it is African Union offensives pushed the group out of Mogadishu in 2011 and out of the main southern ports over the next few years. It answered by giving up cities and keeping its hold on the countryside, from which it stages bombings and raids. Estimates of its strength run from 7,000 to 12,000 fighters. Ahmed Diriye, also known as Abu Ubaidah, took over as leader in 2014 after an American strike killed his predecessor, Ahmed Abdi Godane. A faction in Puntland broke away in 2015 to join the [[Islamic State]]. ## Major attacks | Date | Attack | |---|---| | Sep 2013 | Gunmen besiege the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, for four days, killing 67 | | Apr 2015 | An assault on Garissa University in northeastern Kenya kills 148, mostly students | | Oct 14, 2017 | A truck bomb in Mogadishu kills more than 500, the deadliest attack in Somalia's history | ## Now In February 2025 the group opened an offensive in the regions around Mogadishu to retake what it lost in a 2022 government campaign. In 2026 it faces a steady pace of American airstrikes and a government distracted by a constitutional crisis; the African Union force opposing it is scheduled to shrink. The fuller picture is at [[Somali Civil War]]. ## Why it's on the map Al-Shabaab is the reason the United States is still carrying out strikes in Somalia under the 2001 [[AUMF]]. It also sits inside an American immigration argument: the Biden administration's 2024 extension of [[Temporary Protected Status]] for Somalis cited the group's attacks, and the Trump administration's January 2026 termination said conditions had improved, while the strikes continued. ## See Also - [[Somali Civil War]] · [[Somalia]] · [[Al-Qaeda]] · [[Islamic State]] - [[AUMF]] · [[Drone Warfare and Targeted Killing]] · [[War on Terror Timeline]]