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UN report finds Kenya still funding al-Shabaab terror group through illegal sugar and charcoal trade
Kenya contingent of AMISOM mission alleged to be making millions from trade with al-Shabaab.
Elsa Buchanan By Elsa Buchanan
Updated November 8, 2016 12:34 GMT
Kenyan army in Somalia
Somali women watch from a rooftop as a soldier of the Kenyan contingent serving with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) stands guard on a street in the centre of the southern Somali port city of KismayoSTUART PRICE/AFP/GettyImages
Three years after the Kenyan army was first accused of colluding with Somalia-based Islamic group al-Shabaab in Somalia's multimillion-dollar illegal charcoal trade, the United Nations has warned that Kenya's military are still complicit in the trade, from which al-Shabaab predominantly finances its activities.

In 2013, the United Nations found that members of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) operating in Somalia as part of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) was complicit in the trade that provides income to al-Shabaab. The terror group – KDF's military opponent in Somalia and at home – has long funded its war against the Somali government and AMISOM by the illegal export of charcoal estimated at between $135m (£109m) to $180m by the UN monitoring group for Somalia and Eritrea.

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A UN report by the experts group, and made public on 31 October, alleged that the Kenyan army was still acting as a broker in the vast illegal charcoal trade in agreement with al-Shabaab, thus enabling the terror group's financing.
The UN committee claimed the source of income comes from informal taxation at roadblocks and ports.

Experts estimate that between 4.5 million and 6 million bags, each containing 25kg of coal, are exported each year aboard hundreds of dhows from Bur Gabo and Kismayo, seaports just 200km from the Kenyan border to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). These imports are in violation of a 2012 total ban on charcoal exports imposed by the Security Council.

Claims: Kenyan army makes several million dollars

In their latest report containing supporting photographs, the UN experts evidence the presence of a KDF military base next to a pile of illegal coal in Bur Gabo. "The Kenyan troops receive $2 for a bag of coal at the port of Kismayo," the report read. It is estimated the KDF contingent working under the banner of AMISOM is making several million dollars per year.


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US government-funded organisation Institute of Defence Analyses (IDA) was the second institution to accuse KDF of complicity in the illicit charcoal trade in Somalia after it published a report in 2014.

"Since the charcoal trade is al-Shabaab's primary income, it is not an exaggeration to posit that a portion of the resources used to carry out terror attacks in Nairobi and in Mombasa and other locations along the Kenyan coast is being generated with the acquiescence or even the cooperation of the KDF and Kenyan business interests," IDA's report read.

Kenya's military chiefs have previously denied allegations of involvement in any illicit activity in Somalia and have maintained that since October 2011, they have only engaged in military action aimed at stabilising the war-torn country.
Indulging in 'profitable' sugar smuggling

The experts, however, found that the UAE has strengthened the implementation of the Security Council embargo on charcoal – meaning coal exporters have become more reluctant to load the dhows in Somalia's ports since May 2016.

Faced with a drop in profits due to the recent decline in the charcoal trade, al-Shabaab is diversifying its funding sources and the illicit sugar trade is gaining relevance.

"Al-Shabaab is increasingly resorting to levying taxes on the illicit trades of sugar, agricultural production and livestock," the experts noted in the report. It is estimated the terror group makes up to $17.6m a year from the illegal sugar trade, and up to $9.3m on agricultural products.

The role of the KDF in these other illegal trades first surfaced in 2015, when NGO Journalists for Justice (JFJ) published a report in which it alleged that the Kenyan army was also levying taxes on traders involved in sugar smuggling at Kismayo port, which it controls. At the time, the group estimated the army was demanding a tax of $2 per bag on imported sugar, generating an income of around $250,000 a week, or $13m a year.

"Everything goes into the pockets of the commanders of the Kenyan army in Somalia. Sugar is illegally imported from Brazil, passes through the UAE and Saudi Arabia, before arriving in Somalia and crosses the Kenyan border, where it is sold at low prices [because it is not taxed]. It is very profitable," Kwamchetsi Makokha, JFJ programme adviser, said.

On 6 November, the Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua slammed the report as "rubbish" and said the "farce"'s "only agenda is to demoralise the Kenyan troops".

According to JFJ, Kenya's allies in the fight against al-Shabaab – in particular the UN, United States and United Kingdom – are "very frustrated" with the fact that the KDF network is facilitating al-Shabaab's profiteering from illegal charcoal and sugar smuggling in contravention of United Nations sanctions and Kenyan law.

AMISOM was created by the African Union in January 2007 as a regional peacekeeping mission with the approval of the United Nations.

The Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab has named Sheikh Ahmed Iman Ali as its new leader and coordinator in Kenya.

The news came out after a meeting held in Afgoye attended by Shabaab's ruling elites, during which Ahmed Godane, one of al-Shabaab's top commanders, named Sheikh Iman Ali as the organization's representative in Kenya. Mr. Ali, according to Godane, has been a trusted ally in mobilizing Kenyan youth to come to Somalia and take part in the jihad, or religious war against the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and allied forces.

Mr. Ali, who is not Somali, is a former resident of the Nairobi suburb of Majengo, in the district of Pumwani, where he established a community organization in 2008 known as Muslim Youth Centre (MYC), more commonly known as the Pumwani Muslim Youth (PMY). Though the MYC ostensibly serves to provide youth with religious counseling, in practice serves as a recruiter of young militants and travel facilitator to Somalia, according to the July 2011 report from the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia.

In a September 13, 2010 lecture to MYC combatants and other Swahili-speaking pro-al-Shabaab fighters, according to the report, Mr. Ali urged his audience to "cut, peel, and slash" the throats of Kenyan "infidels," and to launch attacks in Kenya of similar magnitude to the July 2010 bombings in Kampala, Uganda.

Mr. Ali, who relocated to Somalia in 2009, has developed a strong network of members and sympathizers in the Kenyan cities of Eldoret, Garrisa, and Mombasa. Mr. Ali allegedly commands a force 200-500 fighters, most of whom are Kenyans, including minors, recruited from Majengo through his religious sermons.

On one hand, therefore, Mr. Ali's appointment is insignificant, with his title merely confirming a position he already holds. On the other, the public announcement may be an attempt by jostling al-Shabaab factions to curry favour with the well-connected commander.

"One explanation is that, because Shabaab is undergoing a leadership struggle right now, certain parties may be looking to shore up their allies," explained a regional Somalia expert. "Godane might be looking for access to Iman's funding and networks."

More worryingly, the timing of Mr. Ali's appointment could indicate that al-Shabaab leadership is setting Mr. Ali up to take credit for a terror attack in Nairobi that many analysts, including British intelligence sources, say is imminent.

"If MYC has been planning an attack in Kenya for a while, as many experts think, Shabaab could be setting him up to take public credit for it," said the source.

Some al-Shabaab leaders, including Islamic Courts Union (ICU) founder Hassan Dahir Aweys, welcomed the naming of Mr. Ali and expressed confidence in his ability to coordinate attacks in Kenya.

“We believe Sheikh Iman is a young and a very religious leader who has shown a lot of effort in recruiting youth for jihad, and we believe that he is going to double his work,” Mr. Aweys announced to a crowd in Afgoye this morning.

In a propaganda video posted to YouTube yesterday (since taken down), Mr. Ali is shown lecturing in Kiswahili wearing a set of green combat fatigues.

“Kenya has declared war against Somalia and jihad should now be waged inside Kenya which is legally a war zone," he says.

The IC funds alshabab particularly the Gulf states such as Saudi, Qatar and UAE.

The IC funds alshabab particularly the Gulf states such as Saudi, Qatar and UAE.

I agree with you in this points Gulf States

Killing It’s Kenyan & Tanzanian Commanders & Fighters Over ISIS Allegiance
by David Goldman


isis som - Copy
Event Summary
The Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen movement (HSM), remains far from a solution to its leadership and financial crises as it focuses its guns and frustrations on Kenyan fighters besides Tanzanian’s.

Just a dozen past weeks, a Kenyan trainer cum commander was betrayed and killed; another was sent alongside children jihadists to Puntland and got killed while some of his Kenyan children soldiers were captured.
In the 1st week of April 2016, HSM publicly executed Tanzanian jihadist, Issa Jemes Mwesiga, in Jiliib town square. Jemes was accussed of spying for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). ISIS in East Africa issued a statement on social media denying that Issa Mwesiga was a CIA spy, in what Strategic Intelligence viewed as affirmation of links with Issa besides secretly admitting that he was an ISIS operative.
In mid April 2016, Abu Salim Al-Mujahir, a Kenyan commander based in southern Somalia was arrested and detained at the HSM headquarters in Jiliib.
Just this past week, Daesh (ISIS) East African affiliate Jahba East Africa (JEA), issued a statement through social media claiming arrest and detaining of Kenyan and Tanzanian jihadists by the Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen movement (HSM).
Most notable of these events is the arrest of HSM senior field commander Maalim Kalamov Qudamo, a Kenyan who has been instrumental in battle planning, recruitment of fighters, particularly Kenyans, and logistics for attacks against AMISOM in Gedo and Juba regions.
Analysis; Will HSM & Its Ex-Generals Fight the Last War?
These events and developments are indicators of the growing possibility that fierce battles between “ISIS and Al-Shabaab” may soon be waged in Somalia. These events forecast besides validating facts that Islamic States/Daesh (ISIS) has made inroads infiltrating Harakat Al-Shabaab Mujahideen ranks and folds besides territory courtesy of Kenyan commanders who are pro-ISIS; a situation, HSM is depressed about.

Read Also: Baidoa Suicide Terror Attack Kills 10, Somalia
In Somalia, a country that has been hard hit by waves of jihadist’s insurgency, drought, poverty, and political instability factored by clan differences, HSM influence is waning as it loses its Kenyan brigade to ISIS and political ideology differences.

Kenyan jihadist Generals in the HSM movement, particularly Muhamed Kuno Gamadheere, (suspected to be sympathetic to ISIS, and in fact, the 1st HSM commander to be reported by SOCMINT & OSINT sources to be pro-ISIS) have been significantly pivotal in making HSM what it is today. The ideological differences emanate from the political interests of the top Al-Shabaab leadership. These objectives don’t have a place for Kenyan fighters let alone the Tanzanians. The Al-Shabaab is no-longer financially rewarding, ISIS is. ISIS is expansionist and has a ‘fighters’ retention’ principle, Al-Shabaab is not.



ISIS already has 3 bases with an average of 60 fighters per base. The bases “Abu Numaan base” (the main base) in Puntland’s Galgaa mountains region, Mogadishu, and in Jillib are swelling with fighters including foreign jihadists. ISIS in Syria through its Yemeni cells has been channeling money and weapons to the Abu Numaan base commander and leader of ISIS in East Africa, Sheikh Abdikadir Muumin.

Al-Shabaab now views its “Kenyan” jihadist Generals as rivals. Driven by its dominance in East Africa, the HSM Shura council may have mulled waging a war against the Kenyan Generals in its ranks to decimate the division and keep its house in order. Killing the Kenyan’s and Tanzanian jihadists is an ideal strategy to end the rivalry besides end the rebellion; as the Amniyaat perceives.
ISIS has come out strongly condemning the killing, arrests, and unwarranted detention of Kenyan and Tanzanian fighters. “Our brothers joined the Mujahideen as free men, now they carry the flag of Tawhid in fear” an email seen by SIS agents reads.

Read Also: Somali’s NISA Forces Foils Motorbike Bomb in Afgoye Town
Intelligence shows ISIS is planning a major attack against Al-Shabaab. Credible OSINT and SOCMINT intercepts from ISIS operatives in East Africa confirm a possible mutiny by Kenyan & Tanzanian jihadists at the headquarters of the Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen movement (HSM). Currently, Al-Shabaab Amniyaat (intelligence wing), and military planners have turned their attention to deterrence measures; killing and detaining the Kenyan Jihadists and Generals. It is an easier way for them. The Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen movement (HSM), by eliminating the Kenyan Generals in their rank is seeking to prevent rather than fight a war with ISIS; for such an eventuality, would have catastrophic ramifications.

But as military historians and war planners would put it, the Kenyan & Tanzanians commanders in Al-Shabaab know they are marked for death, and as the proverb says, “generals have the tendency to fight the last war”.

Al-Hijra, the Kenyan al-Shabaab (Pt. 1) SOFREP Original Content
BY DEREK GANNON 04.20.2015#EXPERT ANALYSIS EMAIL SHARE TWEET

Kenya’s problems with Islamic fundamentalism were thrust into the West’s mainstream media limelight with the ill-fated Westgate Mall Complex attack on September 23, 2013 in the suburbs of Nairobi, as were the subsequent security failures of the Kenyan Defense Forces charged with responding to said attack. The issue was further emphasized during the most recent tragic bloodbath that occurred earlier this month at the Garissa University in northern Kenya, in which 148 students lost their lives violently at the hands of al-Shabaab-linked jihadists for being ‘non-Muslim.’ Harajat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen or ‘al-Shabaab,’ a Somalia-based jihadist group, enthusiastically claimed responsibility for these brazen attacks on what they consider ‘foreign soil.’

Al-Shabaab claims they have a large network of mujahideen or ‘guerilla fighters’ from the slums of the port city of Mombasa, the refugee camps in Dadaab, and the Eastleigh district paralleling ghettos of the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi. All these locations house refugees from brutal civil wars and widespread violence in neighboring African countries.