Influx of Foreign Fighters Boosts Islamic State’s presence in Somalia, UN says..

The Islamic State group has doubled its presence in Somalia in recent months due to an influence of foreign fighters, many of them coming from countries in Africa and the Middle East, according to the United Nations.

The U.N. Sanctions Monitoring Team for Somalia estimates IS-Somalia now has 600 to 700 fighters. The expansion has enabled IS to expand its operations and challenge al-Shabaab, which is affiliated with IS’s rival al-Qaida. IS-Somalia has taken over some former al-Shabaab territory in the mountains of northern Somalia.

Fighters are coming from Ethiopia, Morocco, Syria, Sudan, Tanzania and Yemen. In most cases, they enter Somalia through its northern Puntland state, which shares a border with Ethiopia and lies 300 kilometers across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen. Islamic State’s Yemen Province, which formed in 20014, has been engaged in Yemen’s civil war since 2015.

The expansion of Islamic State in Somalia coincides with that group’s growing prominence among the broader IS organization. IS-Somalia has also become a key source of funding for IS operations in Africa.

“Despite being relatively limited inside Somalia compared to its rival in al-Qaida’s al-Shabaab, the Islamic State’s Somalia Province is punching well above its weight internationally and has become one of the Islamic State’s most important global branches,” analysts Caleb Weiss and Lucas Webber wrote for the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.