A growing number of Britons are answering the call to jihad in Somalia and joining the ranks of militants linked to al-Qaeda ahead of a US-backed drive next month to strengthen the country’s army.
Sources say that the influx, which includes Britons of Pakistani origin, is heading to the Horn of Africa as the US tries to shore up Somalia’s government in the face of a broadening Islamist insurgency.
Warnings have been sounded about British-based groups offering funding and expertise to individuals seeking to travel to Somalia to fight alongside al-Shabab, a militia aligned with al-Qaeda’s global campaign.
US State Department sources said on Saturday that the influx of “foreign fighters” arriving in Somalia to swell the ranks of al-Shabab had been noted. Popular routes from Britain to Somalia involve neighboring countries Kenya or Djibouti.
One Western official said some flights to the republic had, at one stage, been dubbed the “Djibouti express” because on occasion so many young Britons were on board.
The precise scale is unclear, but “scores” of British fighters are known to have traveled to Somalia.
Concern is growing over the drip-feed of British men attending Somali training camps. Officials are keen to limit the country’s potential to evolve into an alternative hideout for al-Qaeda extremists from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Somalia’s ungoverned spaces raise the risk, say analysts, of the country replicating Afghanistan’s role as an al-Qaeda safe haven when under Taliban control.
There is also fresh concern over Somalia’s proximity to Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula base for al-Qaeda. Last week, the British ambassador to Yemen survived a suicide bomb attack as his convoy traveled through the capital. A Pentagon source said recent events meant the US was developing “significant concerns about the growing threat” in the area.
The US has sent special forces into Yemen to work with the army to try to counter the al-Qaeda threat. It has also spent US$6.8 million in Somalia supporting training for nearly 2,000 soldiers, touted as the biggest effort to rebuild the Somali army in two decades.
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