A firefighter tries to extinguish fire from the wreckage of a burning vehicle following an attack on a restaurant by the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab in the capital Mogadishu, Somalia. (Photo: Feisal Omar, Reuters) A firefighter tries to extinguish fire from the wreckage of a burning vehicle following an attack on a restaurant by the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab in the capital Mogadishu, Somalia. (Photo: Feisal Omar, Reuters)
In late October, a faction of Somali militants aligned to Islamic State and led by long-time cleric Abdulkadir Mumin, walked into the town of Qandala along Somalia’s northern coast in the Bari region of Puntland, meeting little resistance. Whether or not they subsequently retreated to the town’s outskirts is unclear, but a naval attack by Puntland’s forces on November 10 confirmed the militants’ continued occupation of the area.
The development is worrying for a number of reasons. It’s the first attempt by militants aligned to Islamic State to hold territory in Somalia, a key criteria for pledged groups such as Mumin’s to gain official acceptance as a full wilayat (province) in Islamic State’s global caliphate.
Second, Qandala’s strategic location is underscored by its proximity to Yemen, and specifically the port city of Al Mukalla, long rumoured to be a source of weapon imports.
The annual United Nations monitoring group report on Somalia recently highlighted the role of illicit weapon flows from Yemen to Somalia, while the former head of Puntland’s intelligence remarked in June that Mumin’s troops had already begun receiving supplies via the Al Mukalla route.
Finally, the occupation of Qandala may demonstrate the ability of Islamic State-aligned militants to leverage Somalia’s notoriously difficult clan system to their advantage. Mumin hails from the Ali Salebaan sub-clan of the Darod/Marjeteen, whose members inhabit the Bari region, and he may utilise these loyalties for support and protection in the wake of security operations by regional authorities.
Mumin pledged allegiance to Islamic State in October last year with just a few dozen militants, breaking off from an al-Shabab cell based in Puntland. This was the first major pledge, but a small, diverse pool of al-Shabab militants throughout Somalia have since followed his lead, making Mumin’s group the most active, but not the sole representation of Islamic State in Somalia.