Speaking to Al Shabaab

Here is a piece I did for the BBC about my communications with the Somali Islamist group, Al Shabaab.

You can read my report for BBC Online by clicking here.

And you can listen to my piece for BBC From Our Own Correspondent by clicking here.

Here is the script for my report:

Speaking to Al Shabaab

The other morning I woke up to a text message and missed call from Al Shabaab.  

As always, the message was written in perfect English. It informed me about a film Al Shabaab have made called Beyond the Shadows which, it said, gave an ‘accurate portrayal’ of what happened when French commandoes last year tried – and failed – to rescue a suspected French intelligence agent held hostage by the group.

I watched the film. Like some of the other material made by Al Shabaab's media arm, Al Kataib Foundation, it was slickly produced. It was like a cross between a video game and a war movie, and was full of suspense. It showed a drone hovering in the air, emblazoned with the words 'Eyes of the Crusaders'.

The drone showed in the Al Shabaab film

The film showed the bodies of white men, one with a crucifix around his neck.

It also showed an Al Shabaab fighter in full camouflage. He was wearing white plastic gloves.

The film contained the testimony of a man described as a spy. At the end of the movie it said the 'spy' had been executed.

A few days later I got another call from Al Shabaab. The clear, relaxed voice on the other end of the phone told me I was about to receive a text message about the group’s role in the killing of a senior police official in Somalia earlier that day. Sure enough, a few seconds later the text message arrived. Then came a second call to confirm I had indeed received the message.

This is the usual pattern. A call, a text message, then another call to check the message – or as Al Shabaab calls it – ‘SMS press release’ - has arrived.

Scrolling through these messages on my phone, I can chart the history of Al Shabaab attacks. Many of the recent ones are in Kenya. One five-part message, written in the style of a news agency report, claims responsibility for an attack on a restaurant in Djibouti, popular with foreigners. Or, as Al Shabaab calls them, ‘Western crusaders’.

I have seen Al Shabaab’s violence at close hand. Earlier this year, I was just a few buildings down from the Jazeera Palace Hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, when it was attacked, first by one suicide car bomber, then another, who waited for the emergency services to arrive before driving his vehicle into them and the hotel to ensure maximum casualties.

The blasts from the exploding cars were huge. Bullets cracked down the street as the security forces tried to beat back Al Shabaab fighters who had come - in a minibus I was told - to try to storm the hotel.

In the middle of all this, the main target of the attack – a senior security official – came with his entourage to the place where I was. We set up a circle of chairs for them, and they sat there like statues, in stunned, stony silence.

I sometimes find it difficult to relate these acts of extreme and terrifying violence to the calm, measured voice of the Al Shabaab official on the other end of the phone, to the precise, clinical wording of those text messages.

What started as brief calls about particular attacks have over time developed into longer, wider discussions about the movement’s practices and philosophies. Sometimes there is room for debate. But when I ask about certain subjects, the treatment of spies or adulterers for example, the tone of voice changes. It becomes cold and mechanical, as if learned by rote.

I had the conversation about spies one lazy Sunday morning when I was still in bed. I got a call from Al Shabaab, and as I sat in my safe, comfortable bedroom, I heard about how, “if you are found guilty of spying, there is only one punishment. You will face the firing squad in a public place. Everybody must witness the killing of a spy. The spy must receive three, four or five bullets to the head.”

But perhaps the strangest conversation I had was one sunny day outside the British Houses of Parliament. I was due to attend an event there but as I was early, I was sitting in a park outside, in the shade of those grand buildings. My phone rang. I saw the words ‘Al Shabaab’ flash onto my screen.

What started as an update on the latest attack on the Kenyan coast ended up as a lecture about my faith. “Have you thought about the afterlife?” asked the official. “You know, Mary, you won’t be around in 20, 30, 40 years time. I seriously recommend you consider converting to Islam.”

This man seemed genuinely concerned, as he urged me in a gentle voice to take up the Muslim faith. All the time, images of people I know or have known, who have been caught up in Al Shabaab attacks, flashed before my eyes. Some of them are now dead. Others have suffered horrific physical injuries, like a politician I met whose body was ripped apart in an explosion. His black skin mottled with raw, angry, bright pink scars. His inability to hear anything because of the damage the blast had done to his ears.

Of those that don’t bear any physical scars, but who jump every time they hear a bang, even if it’s just a door. Who shudder when they walk past a parked car in Mogadishu for fear it might explode. Whose hearts miss a beat whenever someone they don’t know approaches them for fear they might be a suicide bomber. Who, like me, have received texts from Al Shabaab, only the nature of the messages is very different as they often contain death threats.

I never quite know when I am going to receive the next message from Al Shabaab. I might be on holiday with family, having supper with friends, when all of a sudden, a text message will burst onto my screen, bringing two very different worlds into sharp collision.

Kismayo - The Somali Tinderbox?

This is a report I did for the BBC about the fighting in Kismayo, which erupted on 7 June 2103:

At least ten people have been killed in a second day of fighting in the southern Somali city of Kismayo, which is a crucial economic and strategic hub. African Union forces are trying to mediate between the rival militias, which are led by two self-declared presidents of the region, known as Jubaland. The Somali president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, has appealed for an immediate ceasefire. Mary Harper reports:

Residents of Kismayo say the fighting is intense. Militiamen are firing continuously from pick up trucks mounted with heavy weaponry. Hundreds of people are fleeing the city. The Somali defence minister is in Kismayo trying to resolve the crisis. He faces a near impossible task. Kismayo is a complex city, inhabited by some thirty different clans. All compete for lucrative port revenues, and access to land, the most fertile in Somalia. The fear is that more clans will start fighting, plunging the country back into civil war and giving the Al Qaeda linked group Al Shabaab an opportunity to retake territory lost in recent months. At least four men have declared themselves president of the region, none of them recognised by the Somali federal government. The situation is further complicated by the involvement of Kenya. There are more than four-thousand Kenyan troops in Kismayo as part of the African Union force, which provides security in some parts of Somalia. Kenya has been accused of following its own agenda in southern Somalia, supporting local militia leaders in order to set up a buffer zone between the two countries. This has led to tensions with the Somali federal government, which fears it is losing the region to a Kenyan backed group which does not respect central authority.

Events in Kismayo sparked a Twitter storm. You can read some of the Tweets here.

This report on Kismayo by the Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute for Policy Studies provides useful background: The Kismaayo Crisis: Options for Compromise

Kismayo-bound plane belching smoke from its back end

If you are planning on taking a trip from Mogadishu to Kismayo, it's probably best not to read this brilliant article by the Somali journalist, Hamza Mohamed: Pray before, during and after your flight.

Transcript of my interview with Somali president

Here is a transcript of an interview I did with the Somali president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in London on 3 February 2013.

You are now in London as part of your ‘world tour’. How are your international visits going?

The international community has been with Somalia for more than 22 years but now this is a time that Somalia is different. Ending the transition, permanent government, new vision – this is what we have brought to the international community. I have been in America, in Brussels and this is the third place in the West I have been to.

I think I wouldn’t be wrong in saying you have one of the most difficult jobs in the world, being president of Somalia. Would you agree with that assessment?

Yes I do. Somalia is a unique country. There is no other experience like that anywhere else in the world, particularly in the post-conflict environment. I know that it is that level of difficulty, and when I was standing for the election I was aware of that, and that I had a challenge to face.

The morning after you had been elected, when you woke up, and you realised you really were the president of this broken country that hasn’t had an effective government for more than two decades, were you scared? Did you feel ill? Were you excited?

Well, I was preparing myself for this position for the past 22 years that I was in Somalia, because of learning and knowing what is Somalia. Being a researcher, being a peace-builder, being a civil society activist, being an academician and a teacher in Somalia… And for the last two years I was actively involved in politics, preparing myself to take the position, so I was not scared when I became president. But I sensed the real challenge I was facing, and proof of that was on the second day after I was elected, I was attacked by suicide bombers. So I was aware of the seriousness of the matter. But even then I am quite satisfied and quite confident that I can do it.

You have been president now for several months, since September 2012. If you had to give yourself a mark out of ten about how you are doing, what mark would you give yourself?

These past couple of months have been preparatory. We have been working to prepare the ground. I would give myself about 90 percent. 90 percent of the activities I have been involved in have proven to be successful or promise to be successful soon.

And what’s the 10 percent that has been a failure?

That 10 percent is the time-consuming issue of building institutions, and that’s where we have been lagging behind schedule for the past five months.

How can you really be called president of Somalia when you as president and your government and security forces don’t control even half of the country? You control Mogadishu and a few other areas. The rest belongs to other people, so how can you rightfully have the title of president of Somalia?

The case goes back to the idea of the cup being half full or half empty. Somalia has been in a situation whereby, in 12 years of transition, the government was controlling Mogadishu only and sometimes even a very small strip of Mogadishu. This is a time when the Somali government is getting out of Mogadishu and controlling a number of districts and regions, that’s number one. Number two, I feel a legitimate president of Somalia because I came out of a process whereby all Somalis got together and agreed to move in that direction. We still have many obstacles and many activities to do but my legitimacy is not questionable because it was consensus based. It was not one man one vote but it was through a consensual process, and I came out of that consensus. So far our movement at building the Somali polity is still based on consensus and we are working on that.

You are not afraid that some of the old guard, the wily, experienced politicians of the past, who basically have their own private armies, are going to come back to try to destroy you?

The matter is the other way around. The Somali people have been in this situation and have developed a lot of experience. A lot of lessons have been learned. The matter is the society. These warlords and difficult people you are describing, they were enjoying the support of the community, the local people. Now this is something myself and my government are enjoying, getting popular support. It is the people’s mindset that has changed now. We have had a sort of paradigm shift. We are moving away from the old practices, old beliefs and old ways of doing things, and this is what makes people believe we are pushing the country in the right direction. Whoever gets the support of the ordinary citizens will be the ultimate winner in Somalia. The warlords, Al Shabaab and others, they somehow cheated the people. Now this is the time the people have tried many different options and those options never delivered. This is a time that the people are convinced that the only way out they have is to have a functioning state in place, and that is what I am leading now.

What about Al Shabaab? They have left most of their urban strongholds but they are still very much present in rural areas. Is the best solution to talk to them or try to defeat them militarily?

To defeat the militarily is absolutely very, very important, or to weaken them which is already done. There are two different ways. The boys and the girls who have joined Al Shabaab for different reasons, for different root causes are Somalis citizens who deserve to get back. But the ideological core team who brought the idea of Shabaab and the idea of extremism to Somalia, since they don’t have any political agenda, I don’t see what we have to negotiate with them. There is no political capital that we can have over them. This is an extremist group with an ideological background. We will negotiate with the community elders, the religious scholars and the civil society to attract and give space to those young boys and girls who joined Shabaab for different reasons. But the core team and the foreigners who have no political agenda. Any Shabaab member who denounces violence and comes up with a political agenda, we can negotiate with them and we can accommodate them. Those who are not criminals by their activities of the past, it is very delicate. So far we don’t see any issues we can negotiate with them. We cannot negotiate with Al Shabaab when they say the country belongs to all Muslims, when they say that foreigners rule the country, when they say they will use violence as a means to an end. These are very, very difficult issues that we cannot negotiate. But if they denounce all these issues and come back as Somalis, we can talk to them.

What will you do about the hardliners?

First of all, we have nothing to do with the foreigners. They have to go. If they don’t go, the only option we have is to create an environment or a situation that compels them to go away. Those hard core Somalis, if they denounce their positions, then there is a subject to discuss.

At the moment, Somalia has basically outsourced its security to African Union forces, Ethiopian forces, some Western forces helping. You’ve got foreign navies patrolling the seas to try to get rid of pirates. Isn’t this a massive problem and an embarrassment for you, to have a country whose security is dependent on foreigners?

First of all, when I was coming to this position, when I was seeking the election to become president of Somalia, I was aware of all this. It is there. Many of these issues that you raised, the reason why these different forces are in Somalia is that the Somali problem is not a Somali problem anymore. It’s a regional problem. It’s a continental problem. It’s an international problem. But from our perspective, what we want is to dismantle these interlinking issues and problems that have been established in Somalia for all these long years, and we want to make the challenges in Somalia a Somali problem that Somalis can address. But this will take some time. We will go through a process. We are here today to overtake those forces and control the destiny of Somalia.

How are you going to get the ownership back of your own security?

One of the major reasons we are in London today, and why we have been in Washington and Brussels, is to get the support of the international community to have well-organised, well-equipped, well-disciplined Somali security forces and security institutions. That’s what we are going to build. Once we build that, it will be very easy to take over.

In terms of the arms embargo that’s currently in place, do you want that to be lifted?

Yes, we want to arms embargo to be lifted, and we have requested the United Nations Security Council to do that. We have told the friendly countries we met that we can’t build our security forces if this arms embargo is in place.

And what was their response?

It has been very positive so far. We are just waiting for the final response from the United Nations Security Council.

I have heard some Somalis begin to say – because I suppose the honeymoon period is slightly drawing to an end – that our new president, our new government is very slow. Or sometimes they say it’s like an NGO government. That you are people with good intentions but not politically experienced enough to run this big mess that is Somalia. What’s your answer to your critics?

There is no experience to take for the Somali case. Nobody has ever been in a country or a situation like Somalia so we are all learning, that’s number one. Number two is the complexity of the problem in Somalia means that we can’t hurry or be very fast. We have to be very careful. One simple mistake can take us back many, many years. So we are cautious and we are taking the necessary steps. Somalia has been without a functioning state for 22 years and we want to establish one now. I don’t see any reason how anyone can expect miracles to happen in Somalia in just five months.

You have had some problems with the port town of Kismayo, which was I suppose taken over on your behalf by Kenyan forces backed by Somali troops, but somehow ended up in the wrong hands. A group of people, a clan perhaps. The first attempt your government made to visit the Kismayo, they were not even allowed in. Isn’t Kismayo the latest in a problem of Somali regions not wanting to have anything to do with you.

The case is not that the Somali regions don’t want to have anything to do with us or with the central government. The case is Al Shabaab was there for a long time and AMISOM in collaboration with different Somali forces are there. The Somali government forces are there and other forces are there of course. But negotiations are going on. The Somali government has been visiting continuously in Kismayo. The issue of Somalia and Somali security is not only a Somali issue. It is regional, continental and international. What you are talking about now is only one small example of how intricate and complex is the situation in Somalia. Soon the prime minister will visit Kismayo. We are negotiating with different stakeholders on the ground, including the local people, the elders, the civil society. Soon a local administration will be established in Kismayo. I don’t see any threat or any problem that Kismayo has that is different from so many complex situations that exist in Somalia. Kismayo is no different from Galkayo, Galmudug, Bay and Bakol, and Hiran. It all needs a lot of effort and a lot of local negotiations, a lot of confidence building, and that’s what we are doing now.

Isn’t that precisely the problem? That Somalia is essentially balkanised. You have Somaliland which has declared independence which it says its not negotiable, you have Puntland which is semi-autonomous, all sorts of other regions. Aren’t you frightened that you’re going to end up being the president of Mogadishu, with the rest of the country operating as semi-independent states that don’t respect you?

I don’t deny that that is the reality on the ground now. But one of the reasons I took office is that the vision I have is to bring back all those bits and pieces and make one unified Somalia. That’s the task we are going to undertake. It’s a reality as you said. Some of those areas have been there for twenty years, some are recent, some want to do the same right now, and we are working on them. We want to organise those who are not organised well yet, and we want to negotiate with the others, and those negotiations have started. They are at the early stage but we have already established connections with different entities including Somaliland, Puntland, Galmudug, Ximan and Xeeb. We have already established links with all of them, and negotiations are going on at different levels. It is a matter of time before you see things changing on the ground.

Somaliland has said that its independence is non-negotiable. Would you be prepared to let Somaliland go its own way and become a completely separate country?

We respect the self-determination of the people but Somalia became a united republic in 1960. We have not yet agreed to separate from each other. We may have different views on unity, but from our part, we have no hidden agenda. It is well known – it was part of my campaign, it’s part of my principles, it’s still part of my policies to see a united Somalia. But we don’t want that unity to come through military coercion, through violence, through emotions or diplomatic pressures. We want that unity to come through a dialogue, through understanding. There is a lot of mistrust in place and resolving that mistrust is a long term issue. Today we want to put in place tools and instruments to manage that mistrust, so that in the long term that mistrust will go away. But for us, one of the six pillar frameworks we established was to establish the unity of the country. We are committed and we want to see a united Somalia. We will give it the time it needs to get that goal achieved.

Somalia has been named the world’s most failed state for the past five years in a row. Do you think it’s going to be the world’s most failed state for a sixth year or will somewhere else take its place?

Somalia has been given different names, not only that one. It’s the one with the largest refugee camp, that exports terrorism, the most corrupt, so all these adjectives are there. But Somalia is a different place today, with a different hope, a different leadership and our way forward, our agenda, our vision has been written down – it is there in documents. For the first time in the recent history of Somalia, our people have something to discuss, an agenda, a way forward. We are expecting that another year, two years from now, what we have planned and put in place, and have discussed with the Somali people and with the international community is a different Somalia. We have a very clear picture of the type of Somalia we want. It’s incremental and gradual, but we want to see a different Somalia in 2015 and 2016.

Interviewing the president of Somalia

On Sunday February 3, I was invited to The Dorchester Hotel in London to interview the Somali president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. 

I could tell an important Somali was staying in the hotel way before I entered its doors. The nearby streets were full of Somalis, and this was a part of London not normally frequented by large crowds of Somalis. Inside the hotel, guests seemed somewhat bewildered by the fact that all the seats in the foyer were occupied by Somalis. The security guards also looked a bit perplexed.

Somalis take over the foyer of The Dorchester Hotel

I met several good friends in the foyer, and after some lively chats, I was invited up to the president's room. He was generous with his time, so I did quite a long interview with him. I also gave him a copy of my book on Somalia.

You can listen to the version of the interview played on the BBC by clicking here.

To listen to the full version of the interview - nearly 20 minutes - please click here.

Interviewing Hassan Sheikh Mohamud for the BBC

The Somali president with my book

Baidoa flags

These are photos of images painted on an Al Shabaab base in Baidoa, recently captured by Ethiopian troops. Look and listen out for reports from Baidoa by BBC's East Africa correspondent, Will Ross.

Kids on the beach

Al Shabaab fighters parade on the beach somewhere south of Mogadishu. This photo was taken last month. These fighters, in their headscarves, guns and matching uniforms, are children.

Al Shabaab's Twitter Account

Here is my report for the BBC on Al Shabaab's latest experiment with the power of the internet:

(With the fiercest fighting for months in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and Kenyan troops deployed deep into southern Somali territory, the country is experiencing a particularly heavy period of violence. On one side is the Islamist group Al Shabaab, which controls much of southern and central Somalia. On the other, transitional government troops, African Union peacekeepers, and Kenyan and Ethiopian soldiers. Fighting is not only taking place on the ground. As Mary Harper reports, it’s also going on in cyberspace:)

At exactly five thirty-five on Wednesday evening, an email dropped into my inbox. It was from the Al Shabaab press office and it invited me to follow Al Shabaab on Twitter. I did so instantly, and there, with its distinctive white logo on a black background, was an image of the Al Shabaab flag.

The first tweet was in Arabic, b-ismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmi, which translates as ‘In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful’. After that, Al Shabaab switched to English and got down to the serious business of military propaganda.

The first tweets gave a hint of what was, within a few hours, to become the most intense fighting for several months between the Islamists and government troops backed by African Union or AMISOM peacekeepers in Mogadishu.

The tweets spoke of an attack by Al Shabaab on an AMISOM base in the north of the city. This was despite the fact that Al Shabaab in August announced that it had withdrawn from Mogadishu, something the transitional government described as a massive victory.

The tweets then launched into what Al Shabaab described as the utter failure of Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia. One quoted a BBC story about the plan for Kenyan troops to join AMISOM. It said this was proof that Kenya had run out of money to pay for the military operation, so need the African Union to pay for it instead. The advice to the Kenyan soldiers was put into one word, in capital letters. It said simply ‘FLEE’.

There was also a tweet referring to the need for Somali government soldiers to sober up, accusing them of being intoxicated by the narcotic leaf, qat, which has been banned by Al Shabaab.

The Al Shabaab Twitter site has attracted dozens of followers since it was launched a few hours ago. So far, Al Shabaab is following nobody.

The Islamist movement has in recent months become increasingly adept at communicating its activities and messages to a non-Somali audience. It writes sophisticated press releases in excellent English, complete with photographs.

And now it has a Twitter account. Perhaps this is in response to the highly active Twitter account of Kenya’s military spokesman, Major Emmanuel Chirchir. He issues a steady stream of information about what he says are Kenya’s military successes in Somalia.

So far, he appears to be winning the Twitter war. He has nearly ten thousand followers. Al Shabaab has four hundred, but its site has only been active for a few hours, and that number increases every time I look at it.