According to a report drawn up by the UN on Somalia, a faction of the Islamic State (Isis) active in Somalia has greatly strengthened over the last year, thanks to the funds received from Syria and Iraq. The faction is allegedly led by Sheikh Abdulqader Moomin, and was targeted last week in the first US operation against ISIS in the Horn of Africa.
The report states that the Isis group, which in 2016 numbered "no more than a few dozen people, has grown in strength" and could "count up to 200 fighters". Telephone wiretapping revealed contacts between Moumin and an Isis militant in Yemen, who would act as an intermediary with senior Isis commanders in Iraq and Syria, "although the exact nature of this contact is not clear". The report states that some fighters who left the group confirmed that Moumin's organization would receive orders, and funding, from Iraq and Syria.
The group captured the city of Qandala in the Somali region of Puntland in October 2016, becoming the seat of the Islamic caliphate in Somalia, but two months later it was ousted by US-backed local forces. In February, jihadists launched an attack on a hotel in Bosaso, the economic capital of Puntland, and in May the first suicide attack on a police checkpoint near Bosaso, killing five people.
"The group showed increasing tactical capabilities during the first attack on the hotel," the UN experts wrote. The Isis group in Somalia "attracts foreign fighters more than the Shebabs", affiliated with al Qaeda, according to the UN. However, fighters get paid poorly, or are not paid at all. If the unmarried fighters do not receive any wages, the married ones are paid $ 50 a month, plus between $ 10 and $ 20 per child, depending on age. According to the estimate made by the UN, the payment of salaries is worth between 3.000 and 9.000 dollars a month, so Isis leaders can count on "a limited budget to finance the revolt". The lack of funds would favor desertions, according to the UN, both from the Isis and from the Shebab ranks.