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Islamic State in Somalia has approximately doubled in size over the past year, the chief of U.S. Africa Command told VOA, “I am concerned about the northern part of Somalia and ISIS growing in numbers,” AFRICOM commander Gen. Michael Langley said in an exclusive interview, using an acronym for the terror group…
Langley declined to provide the United States’ estimate of how many Islamic State fighters are in Somalia, other than to say that the group’s had grown about “twofold” in the past year. Previous estimates have put the number of Islamic State fighters in north Somalia at about 200 fighters, The AFRICOM commander also warned about the possibility of Islamic State increasing its foreign fighter presence in Somalia.
Al-Shabab
The increase in Islamic State fighters in northern Somalia comes as the al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab has exploited diplomatic disagreements between Somalia and Ethiopia to raise its recruitment numbers, Landlocked Ethiopia and Somalia’s breakaway Somaliland region signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this year to use its Red Sea port of Berbera, a deal that Somalia has rejected. Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre on Friday accused Ethiopia, before the U.N. General Assembly, of actions that “flagrantly violate” Somalia’s territorial integrity.
