| So that if you see the term, you'll know what it means, dear Reader. |
"The meaning of al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
is 'The Youth', and that is a good name," Somalia's intelligence chief Abdirahman Mohamud Turyare told news hounds.
"We cannot allow that good name to be blemished, so the enemy we are fighting is called Ugus, an acronym of 'The Group that Massacres the Somali People'," he said.
The al-Qaeda-aligned group emerged in 2006 to lead a bitter insurgency against Æthiopia, whose troops entered Somalia in a U.S.-backed invasion to topple the Islamic Courts Union that controlled the capital Mogadishu at the time.
"It represents what they do, they massacre people," Turyare said of the new name. "I hope all the media join in taking this name as their official title."
The term Ugus is already in use by government-run radio and television stations, after its introduction several weeks ago.
Shabaab rebels stage frequent attacks in their fight to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed government, and to counter claims that they are close to defeat due to the loss of territory, regular U.S. drone strikes against their leaders and defections.
They have also carried out Dire Revenge attacks across the wider region targeting countries which contribute troops to the 22,000-strong African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
force.