Al-Shabaab: how it is organised, and who has led it

In short

The history of al-Shabaab, its aims, attacks and the harm it has done are told in Al-Shabaab, 2006 to now, and its effect on families in Al-Shabaab: the harm it does and how Somalis respond. This page goes one level deeper: how the movement is organised, who has led it, and how its size and money have been estimated. It reports what research and government sources say, without taking sides.

Councils and departments

Wikipedia, drawing on research by the International Crisis Group and others, records that al-Shabaab is led by an emir with an executive council (tanfid) of 7 to 14 members, supported by a consultative shura (Wikipedia, Al-Shabaab). Stanford's Mapping Militants project describes the shura as the main decision-making body, controlling funds and budgets (Mapping Militant Organizations, al-Shabaab); the Council on Foreign Relations puts it at about a dozen members (CFR, Al-Shabaab backgrounder).

Its departments (maktab), as listed by Wikipedia:

The UN Monitoring Group wrote in 2013 that Godane had kept his leadership "largely unchallenged" partly by strengthening the Amniyat, which it called al-Shabaab's "secret service", structured as "a clandestine organization within the organization" so that it could survive the group's dissolution (UN Monitoring Group, S/2013/413).

Regional governors (waali), about ten, run its areas and oversee tax collection, recruitment and services (Wikipedia; Mapping Militants counts nine regional administrations). It runs permanent and mobile courts (Mapping Militants). Its Kenyan wing is called Jaysh Ayman (Wikipedia).

Headquarters by period

• Mogadishu, 2006–2010
• Kismayo, 2008–2012
• Barawe, 2012–2014
• Jilib, Middle Juba, from 2014

(Wikipedia; CFR)

Emirs

• Aden Hashi Ayro led its militia in the Islamic Courts period; he was killed in a US air strike on 1 May 2008 (Mapping Militants). Wikipedia lists Ismail Arale as first emir in 2006–2007.
• Ahmed Abdi Godane (Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr), publicly named emir in December 2007, led until he was killed in a US strike on 1 September 2014. He announced the formal link with al-Qaeda in February 2012 (Wikipedia; Mapping Militants).
• Ahmed Diriye (Ahmed Umar Abu Ubaidah), emir since September 2014 (CFR). Mapping Militants reports that he was said to be ill from 2018 and handed some duties to his deputy in 2020.

Deputies and senior figures named in the sources

• Mahad Karate, first deputy emir; Abukar Ali Adan, second deputy and former head of the Jabhat.
• Ali Mohamed Rage, spokesman.
• Yusuf Ahmed Hajji Nurow, head of the Amniyat.
• Mohamed Mire (Abu Abdirahman), former head of zakat and of the regional administrations, reported killed in December 2024.
• Fuad Mohamed Khalaf (Fuad Shongole), under UN sanctions since April 2010, described by Critical Threats as a shura council member (Critical Threats).
• Earlier leaders who left: Mukhtar Robow, former deputy and spokesman, who left in 2017 and became federal minister of religious affairs in August 2022; Hassan Dahir Aweys, who left in 2012; Ibrahim al-Afghani, a deputy killed in an internal purge in June 2013.

(Wikipedia; Mapping Militants)

Size over time

(Mapping Militants; Wikipedia; CFR)

Money

The US Treasury estimates its income at about US$100 million a year, of which CFR reports about a quarter goes on weapons and explosives (CFR). Sources include checkpoint tolls, taxes on imported goods, zakat, and payments from businesses. The UN Panel of Experts reported in 2019 that the group had begun taxing imports through Mogadishu port and could raise money in areas it did not physically control, and that it had been making its own explosives since at least July 2017 (UN Panel of Experts, S/2019/858). The Monitoring Group estimated in 2017 that al-Shabaab earned at least US$10 million a year by taxing charcoal on its way to Buur Gaabo and Kismayo (S/2017/924). Its 2023 report said captured ammunition, some made as recently as 2020, showed an "uninterrupted illicit supply" (S/2023/724). See UN Monitoring Group on Somalia. Mapping Militants records that in 2024 the US Treasury described a money-laundering network that included companies in the UAE (Mapping Militants). Paul D. Williams lists the main weapons as rifles, machine guns, mortars and, above all, roadside bombs (CTC Sentinel, April 2024).

Names used for it

It calls itself Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen. The federal government calls it Khawarij, and has asked media to use the term UGUS (Ururka Gumaadka Ummadda Soomaaliyeed) (Wikipedia).

Read the primary sources yourself

• Mapping Militant Organizations, Stanford University, "Al Shabaab": profile.
• UN Panel of Experts on Somalia, report S/2023/724: UN document.