Okay kiddo, have you ever played a make-believe game where you pretend to be a superhero and fight bad guys? Well, there are some real-life bad guys that exist in some places in the world. One of these bad guys is called al-Shabaab.
Al-Shabaab is a group of people who want to use violence and force to get their way. They live in a country called Somalia, which is in Africa. Al-Shabaab wants to control Somalia and make it a certain way, but most people don't agree with them. This means that al-Shabaab has to fight against the people who are already running Somalia, as well as other countries that want to help Somalia.
Al-Shabaab does a lot of bad things to try and get what they want. They might kidnap people and ask for money, or they might blow up buildings and hurt innocent people. This is why many countries and organizations consider al-Shabaab to be a dangerous group that needs to be stopped.
It's like when someone in class is doing something bad and the teacher has to stop them. Al-Shabaab is like the kid who is doing bad things, and the people trying to stop them are like the teacher. But, it's much more serious and dangerous than a classroom problem.