Matt Gaetz: “Moreover, Mr. Speaker, we are seeing the government in Somalia achieve gains in large part because of local discontent…”

“Moreover, Mr. Speaker, we are seeing the government in Somalia achieve gains in large part because of local discontent with Al-Shabaab. Because of climate change, we are not seeing the same amount of agricultural and livestock opportunities for people in Somalia, so many of the groups that were paying extortion money to Al-Shabaab are not able to pay it anymore because a lot of the land is dried up. That resulted in Al-Shabaab being incredibly brutal to those local clans and tribes. They poisoned the water, killed family members, and publicly executed people. Then what happened was a lot of those local tribes pushed back and said they would rather align with the government. That is not a victory delivered at the end of a U.S. missile or weapon. That is a victory that is occurring as a consequence of the conditions in Somalia and the choices that Somalis are making. Finally, Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the ACLED piece that details how the government is making gains in ground and Al-Shabaab is losing them. It is titled: ``Somalia: Counterinsurgency Operation Gains Regional Support in Phase Two as Al-Shabaab Attacks and Political Differences Persist.'' [From ACLED, Apr.…”