Armed al-Shabab fighters ride on pickup trucks as they prepare to travel into the city, just outside the capital Mogadishu, Somalia on Dec. 8, 2008. The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab is projecting authority and asserting a wider role in public life in Somalia in 2022, underlining the extent of the challenge Africa's deadliest Islamic extremist group presents to the newly elected government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File)
A Somali police officer recently received an unexpected summons from the enemy. An unknown caller ordered him to report to a town outside the capital, Mogadishu, where the extremist group al-Shabab would settle a dispute between him and his brother. The caller assured the officer he would be safe even if he showed up in uniform.
