Al-Shabaab in East Africa

A coalition of eleven sharia courts form the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and name Sharif Sheikh Ahmed its leader.

Backed by al-Shabaab militants, the ICU wrests control of Mogadishu after clashing with a coalition of warlords.

Galvanized by the invasion, al-Shabaab transforms into the most powerful Somali guerrilla group, well funded and thousands strong.

The U.S. State Department designates al-Shabaab a foreign terrorist organization, blocking anyone in the United States from providing financial support to the group.

Al-Shabaab, in its first foreign terrorist attack, carries out multiple suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing seventy-four people.

AMISOM and TFG forces push al-Shabaab out of Mogadishu and other major urban centers after a yearlong offensive.

Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri announces al-Shabaab’s affiliation with the jihadi network.

The United States recognizes the government of Somalia after a hiatus of more than twenty years. “There is still a long way to go and many challenges to confront, but we have seen a new foundation for that better future being laid,” says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Ahmed Diriye, also known as Ahmed Umar Abu Ubaidah, becomes al-Shabaab’s leader after Ahmed Abdi Godane, one of the group’s founders, is killed in a U.S. air strike.

Al-Shabaab militants in central Kenya kill 148 people at Garissa University College. The fifteen-hour siege, in which gunmen hold more than seven hundred students hostage, overtakes the 2013 mall raid as the group’s deadliest attack in the country.

Former Prime Minister Mohamed Farmaajo wins the presidency in Somalia. The government hails the election as the final step in its decades-long path toward effective central governance, but international observers criticize the election as corrupt.

Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for a deadly siege at a Nairobi luxury hotel complex. At least fourteen people are killed and hundreds of civilians trapped during the hours-long standoff between gunmen and security forces.

The COVID-19 pandemic and disagreements among political leaders cause repeated delays to Somalia’s parliamentary and indirect presidential elections, leaving President Farmaajo in power despite his term expiring in February 2021. The crisis lasts for more than a year and sets back counterinsurgency efforts. On May 15, 2022, former President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is declared winner after three rounds of voting by legislators, and he assumes office a week later.