British–Somali Al-Shabaab Recruits: From London to East Africa

A number of British citizens of Somali heritage became involved with the Islamist extremist group Al-Shabaab in Somalia during the 2000s and 2010s. These cases highlighted the international reach of jihadist recruitment and posed vexing questions for UK security services.

Here are four notable real-life stories of such individuals:

Mahdi Hashi: A London-raised Somali-British man who travelled from being a teenage community volunteer to an alleged Al-Shabaab member and ultimately a prisoner in the U.S. Hashi came to the UK as a child refugee and grew up in Camden, North London.

In his late teens, he claimed MI5 tried to recruit him as an informant, and when he refused, he began experiencing harassment. Feeling pressured, Hashi left the UK for Somalia in 2009 at age 20. By 2012, Britain’s Home Secretary Theresa May had signed an order stripping Mahdi Hashi of his UK citizenship, accusing him of Islamic extremism and involvement with Al-Shabaab.

No charges were filed against him in Britain. The citizenship revocation was a secret administrative action. Shortly after, Hashi disappeared in Africa. It turned out he was captured in Djibouti by local forces likely with U.S./UK intelligence cooperation and handed over to the Americans.

He resurfaced in New York, indicted on terrorism charges. Hashi later described being “rendered” he alleged he was detained and tortured in an African jail before the U.S. took custody. In 2015, facing trial in the U.S., Hashi accepted a plea bargain, admitting to conspiring to support Al-Shabaab.

In January 2016, he was sentenced by a U.S. judge to 9 years in prison. Notably, at sentencing the judge acknowledged Hashi’s claim that he joined Al-Shabaab thinking it was fighting for Somali nationalism, not global terror, telling him: “I believe you believe this organisation you joined was dramatically different than what you thought or hoped it would be.”

Hashi’s case drew controversy. His UK citizenship was revoked before he was ever convicted of a crime, leading critics to argue Britain “outsourced” its problem to the U.S.

After serving his sentence, Hashi is expected to be deported likely to Somalia, since he cannot return to Britain. His saga illustrates the murky interplay of citizenship stripping, intelligence operations, and international law in terrorism cases.

Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed: A British-born Somali suspect who made headlines by escaping UK surveillance in a burqa. Mohamed was under a UK Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measure (TPIM), a form of house-arrest for suspects who cannot be charged, due to alleged involvement with Al-Shabaab.

On 1 November 2013, he walked into a West London mosque the An-Noor Mosque in Acton wearing normal clothes and walked out fully veiled in a black niqab and gown, effectively disguised as a Muslim woman.

Under the shroud of the burqa, he slipped away, ditching the electronic ankle tag that monitored him. It was a brazen getaway that embarrassed the government. Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed had been regarded as dangerous enough to restrict (authorities suspected he had trained with Al-Shabaab in Somalia), yet he managed to evade the tight surveillance.

The incident prompted then-Home Secretary Theresa May to order an urgent review of how this could happen, admitting “There will of course be a review…and any lessons that need to be learned will be [learned].”.

A manhunt was launched, but Mohamed was never caught in the UK. It is believed he succeeded in reaching Somalia likely via Ireland or another third country. The government said Mohamed did not pose a direct threat to the British public at the time of his escape. His TPIM was mainly to prevent travel but the ease of his absconding led to political fallout. Critics blamed the abolition of more stringent control orders and questioned why surveillance wasn’t 24/7.

The opposition called it “extremely serious” and pressed for answers. To this day, Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed’s exact whereabouts and activities after his escape remain unconfirmed. Some reports suggest he was later killed fighting in Somalia, but this is unverified. His daring burqa disguise escape underscored the challenges in monitoring terror suspects who have not been convicted of a crime, and it led to tighter rules e.g. more use of physical surveillance and limits on unsupervised mosque visits for TPIM subjects.

Bilal al-Berjawi: A West London man who became an Al-Qaeda operative in East Africa and met his end via drone strike. Berjawi came to Britain as a child refugee from Lebanon and grew up in London St. John’s Wood.

In his early 20s, he fell in with a group of radicalised Muslims of Somali origin. They became known as the “London Boys” and travelled to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab around 2006. Berjawi reportedly attended an Al-Qaeda training camp near Mogadishu, learning to use explosives.

He was later implicated in plotting attacks in East Africa. In 2009, Berjawi and an associate Mohamed Sakr were briefly detained in Kenya but released. British authorities, alarmed at his activities, stripped Berjawi of UK citizenship in 2010, essentially exiling him while he was abroad.

Freed of any obligation to protect him, the UK had effectively green-lit operations against him. Berjawi rose in Al-Shabaab’s ranks, reportedly becoming a senior figure coordinating foreign fighters. According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, he was even placed on a U.S. “kill list” and tracked by Western intelligence. In January 2012, Bilal al-Berjawi was killed by a U.S. drone strike outside Mogadishu.

In a poignant detail, he had just been on the phone with his wife in London, who had given birth to their first child the day before. Minutes after that call, a missile obliterated his vehicle. His death and Sakr’s a month later led to accusations that the UK “connived” in extrajudicial killings by stripping citizenship and passing intelligence to allies.

While officials won’t comment on intelligence matters, Berjawi’s case is often cited by human rights groups as troubling. A Briton deprived of nationality and then summarily killed abroad. The UK maintains that citizenship is a privilege, not a right, and that depriving someone like Berjawi was necessary for public safety.

Mohamed Sakr: A close friend of Berjawi, Sakr was born in London to Egyptian parents and was a natural-born British citizen. He too joined the Al-Shabaab network in Somalia around the same time.

Remarkably, Sakr’s citizenship was revoked in 2010 at virtually the same time as Berjawi’s, making him perhaps the first British-born person in modern history to be deprived of citizenship for terrorism reasons.

He was effectively left stateless his family had Egyptian roots, but they renounced any second citizenship to try to challenge the UK’s move. Like his compatriot, Sakr was targeted by U.S. forces.

In February 2012, Mohamed Sakr was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Somalia. He was 26. Sakr’s father later told journalists he had “no doubt” the stripping of citizenship directly led to his son’s demise.

The family argued that without British citizenship, Sakr lost any protection and became “fair game” for a drone attack. These events raised profound legal questions: should governments be able to “wash their hands” of citizens suspected of terrorism by unilaterally nullifying their citizenship, even if it leads to their death abroad?

The UK High Court eventually reviewed these cases. One judge commented that the government likely had “substantial grounds” for its decisions, even as he acknowledged the harsh impact on the families.

Together, the stories of Hashi, Mohamed, Berjawi, and Sakr illuminate the global dimension of jihadist activity and the British government’s hard-line measures in response. These men moved from the streets of London to the battlefields of Somalia, becoming part of Al-Shabaab’s terror campaign.

The UK’s approach including citizenship revocation remains controversial but has been repeatedly used especially after these cases, in the context of ISIS. For its part, Al-Shabaab has at times trumpeted the involvement of “Britani” fighters in its ranks. One Al-Shabaab propagandist infamously called Britain “the enemy that will never win” while mentioning fallen fighters like Berjawi as heroes.

Yet, many British–Somali community leaders have condemned these individuals, highlighting they do not represent British Somalis or Muslims at large. In the end, all four of these men were either imprisoned or killed overseas. Their journeys are cautionary tales of disaffected youth drawn to foreign wars, of the reach of counterterrorism across borders, and of the personal tragedies that ensue when young men choose the path of violent extremism.