Database: Identifiers of Designated Islamic Terrorist Organizations
Al-Shabaab
Designation Status (as of October 12, 2026)
| US State Dept FTO | Listed al-Shabaab since March 18, 2008 |
|---|---|
| US Treasury OFAC SDN (SDGT) | Listed AL-SHABAAB; ANSAR AL-ISLAM |
| UK Proscribed | Listed Al Shabaab since March 2010 |
| EU Terrorist Lists | Not listed official list |
| Canada Listed Entities | Listed Al Shabaab since March 5, 2010 |
| Australia Listed | Listed Al-Shabaab since August 22, 2009 |
Profile written 2014 The profile below is the original Jihad Intel text and has not been updated. Designation status above is current.
Designated as terrorist by: Australia, Canada, European Union, United Kingdom, United Nations, United States
Base of operations: Somalia
Background: National Counterterrorism Center
Background: Council on Foreign Relations
Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahideen ("Mujahideen Youth Movement"), better known simply as al-Shabaab ("the Youth"), is a terrorist group determined to depose the Western-backed government of Somalia and establish fundamentalist Islamic rule there. Its union with al-Qaeda was proclaimed in 2012. Al-Shabaab murders Christians and controls much of southern and central Somalia, but its brutality is not limited to that nation. For example, it carried out suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, in 2010 and is widely believed to have been behind the 2013 massacre at a mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Somali-Americans, particularly from the Minneapolis area, have been recruited to fight alongside al-Shabaab, with one becoming the first known suicide bomber from the U.S. Washington's worry is that well-trained Somali-American jihadists will return and constitute a grave terror threat to the homeland.
