[Garowe] For over a decade, al-Shabaab
 ...... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa...
Lions of Islam have been wreaking havoc in Somalia and across the borders, with experts noting that the group could be having a strong financial base that helps it to execute operations with impunity and little strain.
Al-Qaeda linked group has been spending millions of dollars in purchasing weapons, a report has revealed, in what could force security apparatus to change strategy in dealing with the murderous Moslems.
Hiraal Institute, a Mogadishu-based Security Think Tank, noted that at least $24 million goes for purchasing weapons annually, thus strengthening the group, which controls large swathes of rural central and southern Somalia.
According to the report, al-Shabaab users various methods to procure weapons, including direct purchases from local black markets, and from arms traders contracted to buy and deliver weapons from abroad, mainly Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
The group, the report notes, majorly focuses on the acquisition of firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other lethal capacity weapons, with nearly a quarter of its budget going to such transactions.
"Out of an annually planned expenditure of approximately USD 100 million, al-Shabaab’s annual planned expenditure on arms procurement is assessed to be USD 24 million, budgeted monthly at USD 2 million," the report said.
Samira Gaid, the executive director of Hiraal Institute, told VOA Somali that during research they had access to al-Shabaab's annual budget documentation. They have also interviewed former al-Shabaab members, clan leaders, business owners, government officials, and other sources who have knowledge of how the group functions.
"Just like the FGS [Federal Government of Somalia], the biggest chunk of its resources is currently being spent on security-related expenses; these, of course, include wages and operational costs," Gaid said. "The group also manufactures certain types of ammunition and explosives, and a certain amount of its budget goes towards that."
Throughout the electioneering period in Somalia, the group has increased attacks, mainly targeting security forces and innocent civilians. This week, the group attacked the port city of Bossaso and Beledweyne, a town in Central Somalia.
On Monday, the group grabbed credit for a roadside explosion, which targeted a convoy escorting Said Abdullahi Deni, the president of the Puntland
...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
. Deni survived the attack, but two of his soldiers were killed and four others injured.
On Saturday, al-Shabaab also grabbed credit for a suicide kaboom in Beledweyne in which 15 people were killed and at least 20 others injured.
To finance its operations, al-Shabaab has a sophisticated extortion system that it uses to collect money from the business, agricultural, and livestock sectors, according to a 2021 United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
report by the Panel of Experts on Somalia.
Al-Shabaab as well as Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
Lions of Islam have been collecting extortion money from businesses in Mogadishu for years. Last month, death threats from Islamic State led to the closure of some businesses that refused to pay extortion money.
The stores later reopened after the government deployed security forces. Police also told the businesses they would not have the stores closed except on orders from the government.
The store closures forced Somali Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble to instruct Interior Security Minister Abdullahi Mohammed Nor and the security agencies to come up with a plan to counter the terrorist threats and harassment of traders at Somalia's biggest market.
The U.N. Panel of Experts report on Somalia estimated that al-Shabaab now operates around 100 checkpoints throughout the country. In one of the most profitable checkpoints north of Kismayo
...a port city in the southern Lower Juba province of Somalia, at the extreme southern end of the country (always assuming Somalia can be called a country). It is the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubaland region....
town, which sees an average of 30 trucks pass through in a 24-hour period, the panel reported that al-Shabaab collects an estimated $15,000 to $30,000 per day.
The institute recommended the implementation of several measures aimed at disrupting al-Shabaab's weapons purchases, including the targeting of key murderous Moslem explosive experts, targeting individuals involved in the arms trade, and countering arms imports from the Gulf of Aden. 
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