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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.