On July 9, 2024, the Shahada News Agency, the official Arabic-language media outlet of Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen (Al-Shabab), published a "Notice of Expanding News Coverage" declaring that Shahada will begin publishing news reports "including all countries of the Islamic world, and from now on will not be limited to Somalia and East Africa, as it always had." This change is motivated by the desire to "provide a service more accommodating of the acceleration and intertwining of events and the universality of the conflict."
Shahada expressed hope that its expanded news coverage would suit "the reality of the Islamic world" and be provided "with professional independence and journalistic credibility, based on Islamic creed and morals which cannot be trafficked in or compromised on." Welcoming its readers, Shahada thanked them for their help in conveying its message "in journalistic language that transmits the truth as it is, not as portrayed by hostile Western dictates," and declared: "Together toward independent and comprehensive journalism."
On the same day, the media outlet announced the launch of accounts on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.The X account began posting on July 9 and had published six posts as of July 10. To date, it has 30 followers and is following 99 accounts. In addition to two posts including links to the new X and Facebook accounts, one post included a claim of responsibility for an Al-Shabab attack in southern Somalia, reportedly killing more than 31 soldiers.
The Facebook page, which was created on July 8, has 52 followers and has received 51 likes, as of July 10. Its content is identical to that which is posted on the X account.
For years, the Shahada Agency has maintained a website where it publishes several Arabic-language articles each day. The majority of the articles, which have heretofore mostly covered events in Somalia and East Africa as a whole, are translations of English-language reports from the mainstream media, while a few translate Somali-language statements from Al-Shabab's Al-Kataib Media or contain original reports analyzing the Al-Qaeda affiliate's activity. Shahada posts claims of responsibility for Al-Shabab attacks on the Al-Qaeda-operated Rocket.Chat encrypted server, and has also used the Telegram and ChirpWire encrypted messaging apps. In addition, it has periodically launched accounts on Facebook and Twitter, which have generally been deleted within a few days.
The full text of this report is available to MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor subscribers.
Subscription information is available at this link.
JTTM subscribers can visit this page to view the report.
Latest Posts
