COMMON ANALYSIS
Last updated: June 2022
The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM)’s East Africa Counterterrorism Operation seeks to ‘disrupt, degrade, and deny victory to Al-Shabaab and ISS in Somalia and neighbouring countries’. As of January 2021, the US military troops in Somalia had mostly withdrawn from the country. [Actors, 1, 5.2.1]
AFRICOM was particularly engaged in drone and airstrike campaigns, in supporting the training of the Somali special forces, in supporting the development of the Somali National Security Architecture and of the revised Somali Transition Plan, and in providing operational, technical and material support to Somali military operations. [Actors, 5.2.2]
The airstrikes conducted by AFRICOM in 2020 to March 2021 resulted in militants’ fatalities (between 193 and 221) and reported civilian casualties, including fatalities. Many of these victims were ‘labelled’ as terrorists by AFRICOM although no evidence could be found about their being members of Al-Shabaab or otherwise directly participating in hostilities. [Actors, 5.2.3]