Ceding ground - Shabab's loss of territory in Somalia

Somali militant Islamist group the Shabab has been involved in a bitter transition over the past 12 months. It is facing up to the reality that it could not hold its urban strongholds in central and southern areas of the country in the face of military operations by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), allied militias, and African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) peacekeepers, in addition to concerted cross-border offensives by the Ethiopian and Kenyan militaries.

This latest cycle of the conflict in Somalia began in mid-October 2011, when the Kenyan military launched a cross-border offensive into southern Somalia on 16 October. This was followed in December by Ethiopian forces launching an incursion across the border into Somalia and seizing control of the key border town of Beledweyne in Hiiraan region on 31 December.