section_path: Organisation and structure/Size and structure
section_name: Size and structure
paragraph_text: Size and structure
  
  In 2017, observers estimated that al-Shabaab comprised between 7,000 and 9,000 fighters. In 2018, the Council of Foreign Relations and United States military revised this figure downwards, estimating 3,000 to 6,000 and 4,000 to 6,000 respectively. Reflecting an apparent al-Shabaab resurgence, the United States Africa Command estimated 5,000 to 10,000 fighters two years later, in 2020. Most recently, an expert report submitted to the United Nations (UN) Security Council in early February 2022 estimated that al-Shabaab's fighting force had grown to between 7,000 and 12,000 fighters. In late 2022, President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohammed stated the faction had around 15,000 to 18,000 fighters.
  
  The group is led by an executive tanfid council of 7 to 14 members - a configuration also seen in equivalent organisations such as al-Qaeda, supported by a consultative shura. It operates several internal departments known as "Makhtab", including Jabhat (military), Sanaaca (explosives), Da'wa (preaching), Zakat (taxation), Wilayah (local administration), Garsoor (Islamic courts) an intelligence agency known as the Amniyat, and a police force, Jaysh al-Hisbah. The organization appoints governors (waalis) of which there are ten, and who maintain and oversee all civil services in Shabaab-controlled areas (including welfare and road maintenance).