There are growing fears that a radical Islamic group from Somalia is preparing to export its own brand of jihad abroad. Al-Shabaab, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda, will be top of the agenda in talks between US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Somalia’s President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed in Nairobi, Kenya.

The meeting on the fringes of the US/Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum (AGOA) is seen as significant.  Until now Somalia’s troubles have been dismissed as those of a failed state.  But revelations this week in a court in Australia show that al-Shabaab is threatening to target the West. Five men are on trial accused of planning a suicide attack on an army barracks in Sydney.

Last week, four Dutchmen were arrested in Kenya on suspicion that they were heading for an al-Shabaab training camp in Somalia.

Jihad re-exported
Somalia expert Rashid Abdi from the International Crisis Group says:

“This makes a clear escalation or a radical shift in policy.  Initially what happened was that al-Shabaab recruiters would go to some of these Somali communities in North America, Europe and Australia.  They would recruit youngsters to join the jihad in Somalia, but apparently now the jihad is being re-exported back. So it is a sort of internationalisation of the Somalia conflict.”

Earlier this year the US secret service investigated a plot linked to al-Shabaab that targeted President Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony in Washington in January. 

Recruitment campaign
Al Shabaab has been conducting an international recruitment campaign backed by Al-Qaeda’s propaganda network. It wants fighters to help the group take power in Somalia and impose strict Islamic rule.

Western officials are worried that the chaos in Somalia resembles Afghanistan in the 1990s from where militants planned attacks on the West. Al Shabaab now controls most of southern and central Somalia. 

Rashid Abdi from the International Crisis Group says:

“I think primarily the Americans are anxious and worried about the implications of a radical Somalia and the possibility of terrorism and destabilisation for its regional allies, principally Kenya. America sees itself as engaged in a struggle to contain or neutralise these radical islamist groups in Somalia and elsewhere.  And I think they will see that as a legitimate part of their national security interest.”
 

Support
Mrs Clinton’s meeting with President Sharif is the highest level contact by a US official. She is expected to pledge increased US support for Somalia and 40 tons of weapons and ammunition. 
 

Listen to a Newsline interview with Rashid Abdi: