Al-Shabab kills two policemen, one civilian in eastern Kenya
Al-Shabab, a militaristic group based in Somalia, has performed a cross border raid in Kenya, attacking a police vehicle that was traveling 75 miles from the Somali border. In a police report released Wednesday, December 21, the vehicle was said to have been on a route from Hayley Lapsset camp to Garissa town when it hit an explosive. Following the explosion the fighters launched a grenade and opened fire on the vehicle, which killed two officers and one civilian. There were also other reported injuries in the incident. This type of attack is not the first from Al- Shabab, whose fighters killed over 200 people in different attacks in 2013 and 2015, however the frequency and severity of those attacks has not been as high in recent years. This most recent attack on Kenya was due to Al-Shabab’s desire for Kenya to withdraw troops from an African Union-mandated peacekeeping force that is currently in Somalia. The group has been under pressure in Somalia since the summer, when President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud began tightening things up with the aid of the US, local militant groups, and the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia.
In my opinion, this situation is quite precarious and has the potential to plunge the region into turmoil due to the fact that this has been an ongoing issue that is again rising to the surface. Historically, Al-Shabbab has caused lots of damage to Kenya in particular, and perhaps because of the past there will be more retaliation from the Somali and Kenyan governments so larger scale tragedies do not occur. This might also have lasting impacts on the people of the involved nations and the government structures there, because the continued involvement of militant groups is contributing to the overall environment of instability in the region, so obviously new outbreaks of violence will trigger a wave of fear in the people and a vast array of potential actions by the government. The article stated that the Somali government has aid from a variety of sources, including the US, but I can’t help but wonder if the presence of those actors will help much, since it seems that violence is a constant in many regions of Africa and can’t be stopped.
This situation relates to the topics of national interest and theories regarding the structure of the world that we have discussed in IR. It is a popular school of thought in International Relations that the world is anarchic, and every nation will do what it must to survive and thrive. As demonstrated here, there is a power struggle between militant groups and governments and that dynamic is leading to lots of violence in this particular region of Africa. In addition, this might reflect realist theory by again showing that chaos will reign no matter what, and anarchy is the force behind everything that happens. It also seems that Al-Shabaab is acting on the offensive and making the first move towards bettering their own situation within their nation and region as a group, which ties into offensive realism and the capability of actors to change the status quo by making moves themselves.