Al-Kataib Foundation, al-Shabaab's media arm, released a recruitment video February 25th that aims to portray a fierce, united al-Shabaab comprising members from around the world, when in reality the militant group's ranks are depleted and war-weary, analysts say.
Days after its posting, YouTube removed the 20-minute video, titled "Mujahideen Moments", and suspended the al-Kataib Foundation's account because of repeated violations of service, a fate that similarly befell al-Shabaab's Twitter account in January.
Despite its intentions, the video is an unforgiving window into the world that al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia face -- beset with marginalisation, setbacks and escalating divisions between group members.
The entire video is shot in the backwoods of an unknown location in Somalia, clearly far from any city, village or settlement.
"After al-Shabaab fighters fled the main cities for rural areas and jungles, they have been suffering from harsh living conditions," said vice president of the Somali Media Centre Abdirahman Abdillahi.
"Al-Shabaab is feeling desperate, particularly after the expulsion of its members from strategic locations, resulting in weakened military capabilities and the loss of funding sources it relied on," he told Sabahi.
Abdillahi said the rustic setting reflects the group's string of military defeats over the past year and a half, as al-Shabaab can no longer survive as an organisation in many areas of Somalia. "If [militants] leave the jungles they have taken refuge in, they will become targets for the allied forces," he said.
Nonetheless, he said the militants' wilderness refuge will not endure. The fighters in the video lack basic amenities, as they only have a large plastic ground cover to separate themselves from the sand and jungle vegetation, and the only food they eat during the video consists of simple bread dishes.
"If they stay in their hideouts, supplies will not reach them and therefore, they will be unable to last long," he said.
Convincing new recruits is 'mission impossible'
Creating a video targeting foreigners shows the degree of alienation separating al-Shabaab and Somalis, as Somalis are no longer willing to fill the militant group's ranks, Abdillahi said.
"Al-Shabaab's targeting of innocent civilians and assassination of scientists and clerics has exposed their lies, which had attracted impulsive youths that thought the group was waging a holy war in the name of jihad against the infidels," he said.
"Al-Shabaab is no longer leading a jihadi war and is merely trying to interpret Islam to suit its own agenda," he said. "The fact that al-Shabaab has alienated the Somali people, who now want to fight against it, means the group is reaching the end of its life."
Moses Omusula, a Nairobi-based security consultant, said the video was a stunt to counter the fallout between foreign and local fighters.
"It is becoming evident that the Kenyans who deserted were also not happy about the periphery role they were assigned in the group, and these documents and videos are meant to hoodwink the deserters and new recruits that the issues have been ironed out," he told Sabahi.
"When the group started back in 2007 it created an aura of invincibility, but that image has been demystified by a series of defeats, so much that convincing new recruits has become mission impossible," he said.
Disunity between foreign and local fighters
At the beginning of the video, about 20 apparently Somali al-Shabaab fighters sing in unison about how their mothers should not be sad because their sons will achieve martyrdom.
The video then switches course, focusing on three foreign fighters to portray the motley crew of group members as international.
The video lists the three apparent muhajirs (non-Somali fighters) as Abu Seyf al-Kenyi, Abu Ahmed al-Amriki and Abu Khaled al-Kenyi -- noms de guerre that indicate the fighters are American and Kenyan.
The three of them -- speaking in Swahili and English -- urge Muslims around the world to join al-Shabaab and other al-Qaeda-linked organisations in jihad out of retaliation for alleged injustice, corruption and abuse of their women.
"It is enough for our women to be captured and raped, all this punishment is enough," said Abu Khaled al-Kenyi in the video, despite the fact that al-Shabaab routinely commits crimes against women, as recently exemplified by the group's indiscriminate shooting on a women's wedding party in the Somali town of Bo'o.
The fighters speak as though al-Shabaab is growing, ignoring how al-Shabaab members have been defecting en masse in recent months, and the fact that the crisis between local Somali members and foreign fighters has escalated to new heights.
Deepening divide
Nairobi-based security consultant and retired army Major Wilberforce Onchiri said the video was a desperate attempt by the group to call back Kenyan fighters who deserted the group.
"It appears that the documents they have previously released have not convinced more recruits to join them from Kenya," he told Sabahi. "That is why they are using video to try to convince new recruits that they will not be alone if they join the group."
However, this latest attempt will do little to persuade new recruits and deserters, he said.
Youths who joined the group in the first place did so because of financial promises, Onchiri said. Those promises were unfulfilled as al-Shabaab suffered financial and military setbacks.
The absence of local fighters interviewed in the video shows deepening conflict between foreign and local fighters, said Abdullahi Sheikh Ahmed, a Somali political analyst and former member of the Islamic Courts Union, which used to oversee al-Shabaab.
"The pace of divisions between al-Shabaab's local and foreign fighters has quickened," he told Sabahi. "This happened when the foreigners felt they were unwanted guests due to increased ideological and strategic differences between the two sides."
The video ends with the 20 fighters singing in unison about the alleged justifications for joining al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab. "[We hear] the sounds of gunfire -- it is time for revenge," they sing.
