The Washington Post cites the Atlantic Council for hosting an event with Hussein Mahmoud Sheikh-Ali, the senior counterterrorism adviser for Somalia’s government:
Hussein Mahmoud Sheikh-Ali, the senior counterterrorism adviser for Somalia’s government, said Godane is especially ambitious and has tried to position himself as a key leader within the broader al-Qaeda movement. He said it would be difficult for al-Shabab to replace him, simply because he has consolidated so much power and has assassinated so many would-be successors.
“The organization is a one-man organization — Godane and nobody else,” Sheikh-Ali said Tuesday during a visit to the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. Under Godane’s leadership, he added, al-Shabab has “become more efficient and potent in many ways. But on the other hand, they’ve also become more vulnerable.”