Al Shabaab and al Qeada are brothers in arms – Somalia is a hothouse for terror.
Jonathan Evans, director general of MI5, has openly expressed his view that it is ‘just a matter of time’ until Somalia
and the Yemen export terrorism to Britain’s streets. That striking statement contains one oversight: they do already. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Christmas Day bomber, was trained in the
Yemen and two of the 7/7 bombers were Somali.
How to eradicate this threat? The legacies of Iraq and financial retrenchment have made armed intervention an absolute last resort. Counter-terrorism is essential, but well targeted aid is the easiest remedy for chaos.
In a speech yesterday, Andrew Mitchell described why aid should be directed to benighted regions. Conflict creates power vacuums that are exploited by extremists, who use organised crime to fund exported terrorism – Al Qaeda’s nomadic progress across the conflicted corners of the globe is a case in point.
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