US News and World Report quotes Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham on the rise of al-Shabaab:
J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, says the Ethiopians felt they couldn’t let the militants continue to gain influence in Somalia, but that it’s a common misconception to link the rise of al-Shabab – which has been linked to al-Qaida and is listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States – to the invasion.
“There’s no doubt that the Ethiopian intervention helped Shabab gain a nationalist narrative,” Pham says. “The fact is al-Shabab and its precursor groups have existed for quite some time, for more than a decade, before the Ethiopians invaded.”