Al-Shabaab Shows No Signs of Decline in East Africa

On June 19th the government of Somalia announced that 43 al-Shabaab fighters, including two high-level commanders, were killed in an airstrike by the Somali National Army (SNA) in the Lower Juba region. The two commanders killed were Aden Abdirahman Aden and Idris Abdiramin Nur, the latter of whom was a Kenyan national. The statement from the Somali National News Agency did not state who the foreign partner was that conducted the airstrike, but U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) drones are often responsible for aerial attacks against al-Shabaab in the region. The airstrike occurred on the same day as the nomination of…