Traders’ dilemma as Shabaab targets businesses with CCTV cameras
Somali security officer holds position on their open truck near the Syl Hotel, the scene of an attack by the al-Shabab group in Mogadishu, Somalia on March 15, 2024.
When the Somalia government earlier in the year ordered businesses to install closed circuit television cameras in and outside their premises, the idea was to tame the routine extortion by al-Shabaab agents targeting traders with illegal levies.
Financial flows, just as much as access to weapons, had been identified as important to al-Shabaab’s resilience. But the government created a new problem: Those collaborating with security agencies are becoming a target for deadly attacks, forcing authorities to devise personalised protection for the very businesses.
The directive for installing CCTV cameras generated backlash from the Shabaab, challenging the delicate balance between security methods and civilian safety, especially in the capital Mogadishu.
Data gathered by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (Acled) since October 2024 shows that 23 political violence incidents occurred in Mogadishu, resulting in 37 deaths.
About 40 percent of these were associated with al-Shabaab’s campaign against the CCTV installations. The attacks have paralysed key neighbourhoods, with markets in Ceelasha Biyaha, Yaqshid and Heliwa districts disrupted as traders fear violence.
In August, the Somali National News Agency (Sonna) reported that al-Shabaab terrorists had destroyed at least 30 shops in the biggest market of Ceelasha Biyaha, a populous suburb in the southwestern outskirts of Mogadishu.
“The terrorists detonated bombs to punish the businesses for complying with the state orders,” Mohamed Ibrahim Barre, the Governor of Lower Shabelle region told Sonna then.
Barre denounced al-Shabaab’s cruel action in burning down businesses in Ceelasha Biyaha, reporting huge losses of properties. That scorched-earth policy isn’t entirely new, but the militant group often resorted to other methods like suicide missions or targeting government officials.
In recent months, the government has deployed a three-pronged strategy: de-campaigning the Shabaab version of Islam, curtailing their financial sources by forcing financial institutions to freeze assets associated with sympathisers, and military action in collaboration with vigilantes.
The government’s surveillance scheme was launched in 2023 with the aim of curbing al-Shabaab’s control on businesses by exposing its extortion networks and operational movements.
Loyalists of the group have, for years, collected “taxes” from businesses employing extortion, channelling funds into their insurgency.
At some point, their “tax collectors” were so effective that they infiltrated the formal tax system, including inventory data of imports at the ports of entry in Somalia to an extend that they contacted traders with exact tax demands of goods they had brought in.
Now, as federal government inspectors move around checking the installations of the security cameras, some youth also follow the routine, for al-Shabaab, for opposite reasons. Those with installations are listed for attack.
Some local commentators have said traders are caught between obeying the law and dodging the Shabaab bullet.
In one classic case in mid-October, four businessmen were shot dead by gunmen believed to be members of al-Shabaab in Mogadishu’s Daynile district, according to police and eyewitnesses. Though al-Shabaab didn’t say it, the victims had CCTV cameras on their business premises.
“Most of these attacks targeted business centres where cameras were installed and their owners, creating a climate of fear and uncertainty,” Acled says in its report, Al-Shabaab targets civilians in Somalia in retaliation for installing CCTV cameras, released on November 29.
“Many business owners have found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place: Fearing al-Shabaab’s retaliation while attempting to adhere to the government’s mandate.”
Some traders appreciate the utility of the cameras.
“Theft has gone down tremendously. When thieves enter a shop and spot the cameras, they simply run away,” said one who preferred anonymity.
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