Police hold four terror suspects after operations in Dadaab

Police are holding four people, including a man who was a candidate in last year’s KCPE exam, on suspicions of engaging in terrorism and human smuggling.

They were arrested in separate operations at the Dadaab refugee camp in Garissa.

Investigators are struggling to establish that the four are linked to terrorist groups Al-Shabaab in Somalia and the Islamic State in Libya and Syria.

Moreover, their activities have been linked to human smuggling cartels that facilitate movement of terror recruits.

The suspects in custody are Omar Mohamed Khalif, Barkhatle Maham, Bare Hassan Mahat and Mohamed Aden.

Police said the men have been on the list of wanted terrorists for the last one year.

Omar, aged 54 years, was placed on the terror list following the bombing of a matatu in Eastleigh, Nairobi, in 2012.

The other suspect, Barkhatle was named as an associate.

TERROR OPERATIONS

Investigations have revealed the human smuggling cartels in refugee camps operate in Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahaley.

Regarding Bare, a police report seen by the Nation says he was a KCPE candidate at Halane Primary School in 2016.

He lives in block D2 at Ifo refugee camp that is part of the Dadaab complex.

He is described as “a student of Ahmed Rage. Rage was arrested by police on the November 8, last year and held at Garissa police station following reports that he received a vehicle from Somalia for terror operations.”

The last suspect is also known to police as Cag Jar and lived in Hagardera Refugee Camp.

“He was planning attacks at Garissa Teachers College, Catholic Church and a Primary School. Mohamed’s associates have been probed before, on human smuggling in Garissa. Mohamed Aden is suspected of being an Al-Shabaab operative and a human smuggler,” the report also says.

The arrest comes at a time authorities have heightened surveillance against human trafficking following the discovery of Magafe network, that helps in movement of recruits on behalf of Al-Shabaab and IS.

10 ROUTES

It has agents operating in Kenya, Uganda, Libya, Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, Niger, Algeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Egypt.

Security agencies are now collaborating with their equivalents in other countries in a bid to better understand the seamless blend of the terrorism organisation and other organised crime groups involved in conventional crimes like human trafficking, human organs harvesting as well as abduction and ransom.

So far, investigations have established 10 routes used by the Magafe network to transport terror recruits from Kenya to Syria and Libya.

Using these routes, recruits are able to reach Syria by sea, air or road.

One of the air routes involves flying to United Arab Emirates then connecting to Syria.

In another route recruits fly to Lagos, Nigeria, then travel by road to the neighbouring Niger after which the road trip continues to Algeria, then back to Libya at Tripoli, followed by sea journey through the Mediterranean sea.

Another road trip involves travelling to Kampala, Uganda, then continue to Juba in South Sudan before going north to Khartoum in Sudan, then proceed to Egypt from where the rest of journey to Syria is through the sea.

The Ethiopian route involves flying from Nairobi to Addis Ababa and the rest of journey to Sudan then Egypt is by road. The recruits then cross to Syria through the Mediterranean.