One of the aspects about the conflict in Somalia that I don't think is talked about enough is that Al-Shabaab has almost as many fighters as the various individual pro-government forces. They are at least the second-largest individual military formation, if not the largest. They are also, I would argue, the most professional in terms of military skill.
Everyone acts surprised when they do a major attack ("how could they, they are just a small group!"), but in reality, the fighting is a very near-run thing.
I check war monitors on social media almost every day, and there is always a video from Somalia of Al-Shabaab attacking/raiding Somali units.
People also seem to forget that Al-Shabaab maintains territory, and weirdly has a pseudo-relationship with various international humanitarian organizations (this relates to things like preventing disease among the civilians, providing aid etc...).
Tl;Dr: Al-Shabaab, for all the terroristic violence they engage in, have "legitimized" themselves to a large degree.
An example of what I mean.
There are at least 1-3 videos like this, practically every single day.
From a purely military perspective, it is amazing how the Somali forces appear to have not stepped into the "drone age".
Much like the SAA did, they rely on mass of (artillery) fire as well as airpower and numbers (maneuver units) to "win". These military tactics are from 20 years ago (based on both Soviet and Western doctrines).
HTS ("ex"-AQ) took advantage of this weakness in their lightning offensive that ended Assad's rule. Drones were used extensively to monitor and attack enemy positions.
If the Somali government did use drones (for recon, at least), they would have seen Al-Shabaab militants hiding in the bushes on either side of the road.
Meanwhile, there is some info out there that Al-Shabaab actively uses drones for recon (although apparently they can't kit them out for attack.....yet).
@Aldo2
I might not be an expert, but as far as I understand:
Tere is no "Drone age". These quadrocopters are literally nothing but a childerns's toy that happens to be capable of carrying an explosive. The price of entering this stage of military texhnology is literally ONE dude with an electronic university, or a decent stage of autism. If you offered to triple my salary, I can assure you, that in 30 days, I would be prepared to start manafacturing these drones.
The only real reason they got to be used now is, that modern states got from a cold war stage into an actual conflict, so state of the art technologies are not as useful as mass produced ones. But if quadrocopters weren't used, it would be simply replaced by a cheap guided misiles instead.
@LukeAlmighty how is saying that drone tech is cheap an argument against a "drone age"?
If anything, the fact that it is ubiquitous now is PROOF of the change in military tactics.
Somalia has been at war for 20+ years, since the 90's.
What are you on?
Guided missiles are not cheap, especially for a country like Somalia.
@Aldo2
Here is a riddle.
A young boy walks into a sheets shop. They sell sheets of all colors and sizes. From small bed sheets up to the biggest bed sheets. The soft ones and even extra soft ones.
And the boy says, that he needs some fabric. How do you explain to him, that you only sell bed sheets?
@LukeAlmighty no, I'm sorry, this is another stupid analogy of yours.
@Aldo2
I really hoped you could anwser that one.
Well, whatever. There goes another attempt to understand you I guess.
@Aldo2
I really hope you enjoyed the breakfest this morning then.