Written by: Mohamed Abdifatah Mohamoud (Ameen Guuleed)
Ahlusunna waljama ’a
After al-Shabaab fully occupied the south and central regions of Somalia, they were the most powerful and the most predominant militant group in the country, for this reason they had no adversary against them until they tried to attack the cities in the gal-gadud region central Somalia.
In 2008 al-Shabaab’s most controversial figure Mr adan hashi ayrow who was originally from this same region came to Gur-el with the aim of ruling the town and called for convention among the locals to orient them the lows of the group.
The most eminent persons in the city fled to the neighboring countries and at this point of time merely a small group of local religious leaders gathered secretly in a house just outside the town where they declared an armed jihad against the terrorist group (alshab) who already started assassinating some famous figures in the city who outspoken the cruelty of the terror group.
Ahlusuna called for war against al-Shabaab and the challenge was to get man-power, weapon and financial support, almost all the young and middle aged men in the mosques and the students of the Islamic schools joined the rally, large number communities outside the country especially the Somali diaspora started fund rising, the funds collected was never close to adequate but ahlusunna fighter’s goal was never wealth neither power or name but they believed they are fighting for freedom and a huge reward from their almighty will be granted for every step to combat with al-Shabaab and this is the only reason that helped the massive victories of the group in the coming battles.
Ahlusunna attacked Guru-eel and al-Shabaab never expected such suicidal attacks at that particular time from any, but they were ambushed within few hours of contra attacks and this was the beginning of the deadliest battles ever that the region encountered which deprived al-Shabaab from their further conquest to the northern Somalia.
I personally witnessed one of the earliest and deadliest clashes between the two religious radical groups that occurred in the city I was born guru-el, this war that I witnessed emerged after Ahlusuna captured the city from al-Shabaab and the terrorist militant group of al-Shabaab massively tried to recapture the town several times and failed due to harsh resistance from their rival, which caused the disintegration of al-Shabaab
Al-Shahab appointed their commander in chief a man whose name was commonly known as ‘tima jilec’ to defeat Ahlusunna so that they can fully recapture the areas that are now in the control of their opponent ahlusunna waljama,
But this ended up as a disaster for al-Shabaab the commander was killed with another 103 among his soldier in a war that begun in the morning and ended 2 o’clock in the afternoon.
they brought 33other dead bodies along with his body under one tree which located at the east corner of the city, I was standing under the tree as they were collecting the dead bodies and they dugged mass grave at the same spot which they buried the commander along with him they buried thirty-three other soldiers and the soldiers of ahlusunna waljama dispersed the area, the total death toll was more than 150 men mostly from al-Shabaab.
In the last month ahlusunna attacked the capital city of galmudug ‘dhusamareb’ and captured the city with no major losses although al-Shabaab retaliated the attacks but they were already terrified and disappointed, from this point of time conquest after conquest ahlusunna became victorious and captured almost all the towns in the area, I believe if instantly ahlusunna continued the war against al-Shabaab they would have defeated al-Shabaab from all over Somalia, they had every chance to do so weather the public support or the encouragement to fight for beyond central Somalia.
The political gains
The transitional government at that time which is led by Sharif Ahmed regarded ahulusunna as national heroes due to their capability to defeat the undisputed terrorist group of al-Shabaab.
Ahlusunna insisted the government to consider them as a joint entity with the government but with high privilege, the group wanted to have direct members in the parliament without going through the Somali power sharing system which is based on tribalism (4.5) this 4.5 system which is still used divides Somalia into 4 major clans and all the minorities are considers as half or (.5), this means the minorities get half of what the majorities get.
But the group desired to have more legislators in the legislative board, the government offered them as remuneration some higher ranking posts in the army and the police.
In 2012 president Hassan sheikh was elected in Mogadishu and his government emphasized transforming the country into federalism which most of the people thought it will help the Rebuilding and the renovation of powerful Somali government
The government succeeded creating a federal system which is than based on tribalism, which will make more difficult the aim of ahlusunna of having distinct government official posts in both the central and the state.
After long dispute between the government and the group finally ahlusunna agreed to get prime minister position in the state and sheikh shaker ail Hassan became the prime minister of galmudug state (the only Somali federal state with both president and prime minster).
The fall of ahlusunna
In 2017 Mohamed farmajo was elected as the new president of Somalia, this government’s major challenge was the handling the leaders of the federal states who are the most powerful stake holders in the Somali political culture and this opportunity gave the state leaders the opportunity of oppressing the central government on some issues for their interests, farmajo thought he will be vulnerable and week for the states, for this reason farmojo’s government started overthrowing the state leaders who cannot go hand in hand with their political scheme.
They started with southwest state by enforcing ‘abdiasis laft’ a man who is in the party of farmajo and they attacked baidaba the capital city of south west state and in that attack 11 civilians were deed.
The purpose of the attack was to capture and arrest the man who was competing with them in the presidential campaign of southwest state, they seized the city and detained mukhtar robow who is still in jail without a verdict.
The next state president the government overthrew was the president of galmudug state whom they deposed him and they replace him with mr ‘qoorqoor’ a man whom they call him the illiterate leader with no background of any academic system.
After mr ‘qoorqor’ was put in power he started disintegrating the ahulusunna army with money and convincing them for fake obsequiousness in favor of being their side.
In 2019 al-Shabaab planed a suicide bomb attack in guru-el but it was failed due to technical failure faced by the man who was carrying the bomb, they caught him red-handed interrogated him and found out he was associated with some major government officials who planned to kill the top 3 leaders of ahulusnna in that explosion, but with the grace of God it never happened, after this assassination failed the government attacked ahulusnna directly with their top most especial armed forces, those direct consecutive attacks indicate the attack that was failed in guru-el was planned by the government especially the national security agency by enforcing al-Shabaab and this is very terrifying fact that the government has unmediated connections with al-Shabaab.
The government used every tactic possible to eliminate ahlusunaa and in the long run they destroyed them militarily and also made them a victim by labeling them as a terrorist group same as al-Shabaab but the sad reality is the reason of destroying ahlusunna is because of their un deniable success and achievements in fighting with al-Shabaab which made them the prey.
After reading this I need you to ask yourself this question, what made the government to use their ultimate power to destroy ahlusunna while al-Shabaab controls and collects taxes in Mogadishu? why was this vitality not used for fighting with al-Shabaab?