Kenya issues alert for British extremist

Kenya suspects a British extremist with links to Somali militant group Al Shabab has entered the East African country and wants to arrest him, the interior ministry said yesterday.

The ministry posted an appeal for information to arrest Malek Yassin, posting a picture of a bearded man and describing him as a tall and slender white man with a British accent.

“Malek Yassin, a British citizen, is suspected to have sneaked into the country and police have issued an alert for his arrest,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its Twitter feed.

“Police suspect that Malek is one of the Al Shabab foreign fighters of British origin,” it added.

Heightened alert

Kenya has been on heightened alert following a spate of bomb and gun attacks by Al Shabab, a Somali Islamist group which has said its assaults are aimed at driving Kenyan troops and other members of an African Union force out of Somalia.

In April, Al Shabab gunmen stormed Garissa University near the Somali border and killed at least 147 people. In 2013, the militant group killed 67 people when it raided the upscale Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi.

The interior ministry said another British extremist, Thomas Evans, was killed in June during an Al Shabab attack on a Kenyan military base in northern coastal region of Lamu County, near the Somali border.

In the past, Kenya has been a traditional transit route for Britons seeking to join Al Shabab in war-torn Somalia. Michael Adebolajo, who hacked a British soldier to death on a London street in 2013, was deported by Kenya after being arrested by the Kenyan police near the Somali border.