Al-Shabaab Foreign Fighters Join Sheikh Atom's Militia
Tensions are brewing between the Puntland government, a semi-autonomous region of Somalia, and the local Galgala militia led by Sheikh Mohamed Said Atom, which has been augmented by al-Shabaab militants moving north to avoid Kenya's push towards Kismayo and Ethiopian advances. Puntland and Atom have been at odds for years, but sources tell Somalia Report that the two groups are gearing up for a major battle, and foreign fighters of al-Shabaab are joining the preparations.
Sources indicate that Atom has returned to Galgala after he fled to Burao, in the breakaway region of Somaliland, in October 2010 when Puntland seized control of Galgala and his militia was divided in half. Reportedly at least 150 men defected and joined the Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS) while others, lead by Yasin Kilwe Yuma and Ali Kaarshe, remained loyal to Atom and remained in the mountains. Kaarshe was allegedly responsible for the failed bomb attack on Puntland officials in September of last year.
Still vying for control of Galgala, Atom's militia conducted a series of attacks in Puntland over the last several months including the the most recent attack in the Galgala area of Suqure and Laag on January 11, 2012, perhaps as a probing campaign for further action.
The militia, sources say, are planning new attacks against Puntland's security forces including those based at the main check points around the port city of Bosaso and the Puntland Marine Police Forces in Qaw. In addition, the militia has deployed a number of fighters to conduct reconnaissance missions against potential government targets. Puntland, well-aware of their presence, blamed the group for increased insecurity in the region.
According to sources within the militia, Sheikh Atom has amassed 700 well-trained fighters near the remote mountains of Galgala, including four prominent foreign fighters. (Atom himself claimed to have 400 fighters last year, in an interview with our correspondent, and reports indicate at least 300 al-Shabaab fighters have moved into the area, although Somalia Report could not independently verify this claim.)
Some of the foreign fighters providing expert training to the Galgala militia are:
--Sheikh Ahmed Ali, a Yemeni, who trains fighters in the use of explosives. He has been living in Somalia almost four years.
--Salim Sayid, a Yemeni, teaches fighters ambush tactics and how to smuggle foreign fighters and weapons into Somalia.
--Ibrahim Ahmed, an Egyptian, provides military instruction.
--Sheikh Fuad Ismail, a Sudanese national, handles relations between foreign fighters and al-Shabaab leaders. He has also been known to participate in fighting.
Local officials confirmed Atom's close association with al-Shabaab, despite his denial in May 2011 of any ties to the insurgent group.
"Mohamed Said Atom is the official representative of al-Shabaab in the region of northern Somalia. We know most of his fighters aren't from his clan. They are from south Somalia where al-Shabaab controls,” Colonel Mohamed Jama, a senior security officer from Puntland in Badhan district of Sanaag Region, told Somalia Report.
Abdi Farah Elmi, a Warsangli elder, expressed his frustration with Atom, "We have tried many times to know Atom’s aims, but we failed. We don’t know anything about him or his militias," the elder told Somalia Report.
Mohamed Issa, an editor at Galgalanews and analyst of Puntland's conflicts, said the fighting shifted from defending natural resources to a fight against the Puntland government for control of the area.
"There have been two stages. During the fighting in Mahiyan, we - the local people in these areas - were against any intervention from Puntland of mining natural resource without the approval of elders and local inhabitants, but the latest fighting in Galgala between Puntland forces and the militia loyal to Mohamed Said Atom is clearly not about defending natural resources," said Mr. Issa.
Now that Africa Oil's Horn Petroleum has begun drilling operations in the region, residents believe this could trigger renewed interest in defending natural resources.
Regardless of the reason - whether oil or to establish an Islamic state - residents, elders, officials and journalists who live in the region agree that fighting is imminent in Puntland, in multiple interviews with Somalia Report.
Background on the Galgala Miltia
In early 2006, fighting between the forces of Puntland administration broken out in the towns of Majihan and Dalan after Puntland, led by former President Adde Muse, sent soldiers to guard a mining village of Majihan on behalf of the Australian oil giant Range Resources. The deployment led to a bloody clashes between the local militia, led by former Puntland military officer, Ahmed Jeeni Tag, who claimed his clan, the Warsangali, was trying to defend the lands from illegal foreign mining operations. The speaker of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, Sheikh Sharif Hassan, stepped in to mediate the clashes which resulted in a cessation of fighting, albeit temporarily.
Sheikh Atom, enraged by the attacks against his own clan, the Warsangali, pledged allegiance to al-Shabaab and declared he would fight Puntland until Islamic law was implemented. He was backed by fighters from his own clan, which had been involved in a tribal rebellion against Puntland's authorities in 2006.
Between 2006 and 2010 Atom moved to Galgala area after the PIS blamed him for being a fundamentalist and tried to arrest him. He spent these four years recruiting the youth to train for Jihad, teaching them fundamentalist ideology, giving them training on weapons, tactics, assassination and their numbers began to increase throughout his Galgala area. Much of 2010 was spent with Atom's militia engaged in heavy fighting against the Puntland government in Karin.
By May of 2011, Atom's forces launched surprise attacks on Puntland forces in Galgalaforcing the government soldiers to retreat back to the port city of Bosaso. The fighting continued for months until Puntland's President Farole and Atom signed a peace deal in July 2011. The peace deal was short lived, however, as Atom renewed his fight by November 2011.
Who Mohamed Said Atom?
Mohamed Said Atom, who refuses to be photographed, is 46 years old and prefers to wear Khamis (Islamic dress) on his thin frame. Prior to moving into the mountains, he lived in Bosaso town of Bari region and worked as a cleric. He hails from the Warsangali clan, one of the Darood's biggest clans, who inhabitant most of Sanaag region, Bari, Lower Juba.
He is an Islamic scholar and graduated from East African University in Bosaso in 2003 with a degree in Islamic studies. In 2005, Atom went south to Mogadishu and met the former head of Hizbul Islam, Hassan Dahir Aweys, who has since sided with al-Shabaab.
Atom was included in the list of defendants of violating the arms embargo imposed by the United Nations on Somalia in 1992. The specific case against him reads as follows:
MOHAMED SA'ID "ATOM" has engaged in acts that threaten the peace, security or stability of Somalia. ATOM has directly or indirectly supplied, sold, or transferred to Somalia arms or related materiel or advice, training, or assistance, including financing and financial assistance, related to military activities in violation of the arms embargo. ATOM has been identified as one of the principal suppliers of arms and ammunition for al-Shabaab operations in the Puntland region. He is described as the leader of a militia that emerged in 2006 in the eastern Sanaag region of northern Somalia. The militia comprises as many as 250 fighters and has been implicated in incidents of kidnapping, piracy and terrorism, and imports its own weapons, in violation of the arms embargo. ATOM has established his force as the principal military presence in the area, with a primary base near Galgala and a secondary base near Badhan. According to some information, ATOM is aligned with al-Shabaab and may receive instructions from al-Shabaab leader Fu'aad Mohamed Khalaf.
Furthermore, ATOM is reportedly involved in arms trafficking into Somalia. Information from a number of sources indicates that his forces receive arms and equipment from Yemen and Eritrea. According to a December 2008 report, an eyewitness described six such shipments during a four-week period in early 2008, each sufficient to fill two pickup trucks with small arms, ammunition, and rocket-propelled grenades. According to a Bossaso businessman familiar with the arms trade, ATOM's consignments do not enter the arms market, suggesting that they are either retained for the use of his forces or are transferred to recipients in southern Somalia, where al-Shabaab operates.
ATOM's forces were implicated in the kidnapping of a German aid worker, in the kidnapping of two Somalis near Bossaso, and in a bombing of Ethiopian migrants in Bossaso on 5 February 2008, which killed 20 people and wounded over 100 others. ATOM's militia may also have played a secondary role in the kidnapping of a German couple captured by pirates in June 2008.
