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 His UK citizenship was revoked before he was ever convicted of a crime, leading critics to argue Britain “outsourced” its problem to the U.S.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

On the night of 22 May 2017, a suicide bomber struck the Manchester Arena at the end of an Ariana Grande pop concert, committing one of Britain’s most horrific terrorist acts.

The perpetrator was Salman Ramadan Abedi, a 22-year-old British-born man of Libyan descent. As thousands of young fans many of them children and teenagers streamed out of the arena, Abedi detonated an explosive device packed with shrapnel in the foyer.

The blast was devastating: 22 people were killed, the youngest just eight years old and over 800 were injured or deeply traumatised. The scene was one of chaos and grief, with parents frantically searching for missing kids amid the smoke.

This bombing remains Britain’s deadliest terror attack since 7/7, targeting a venue filled with innocent youth. ISIS quickly claimed responsibility, hailing Abedi as one of its “soldiers,” although no evidence has emerged that the group directed him from abroad authorities believe he was inspired by jihadist ideology and possibly assisted by family members.

Investigations revealed that Abedi had become radicalised and had travelled to Libya his parents’ homeland during its civil war, where he may have had contact with extremist militants.

Abedi was known to UK security services prior to the attack but tragically, the warnings were not acted upon in time. In the years before 2017, MI5 received at least two pieces of intelligence about Abedi that, in hindsight, were highly significant.

Reportedly, one was information that he was associating with a North African Islamist faction, and another that hinted at his bomb-making aspirations. In March 2023, the official public inquiry into the Manchester bombing delivered a damning assessment: MI5’s failure to act on those tips was a “significant missed opportunity” to possibly prevent the atrocity.

The inquiry chairman, Sir John Saunders, stated there was a “realistic possibility” the attack could have been foiled had MI5 pursued the intelligence more urgently. One Security Service officer admitted that, had the data come in today, it would prompt an immediate investigation.

The families of the victims, hearing this, described the findings as “devastating” and “unacceptable,” knowing that “at the very least, a real possibility of preventing this attack was lost.” The head of MI5 publicly apologised, acknowledging that the agency “did not prevent the attack” and “profoundly regrets” not stopping Abedi when they had the chance.

Aftermath: Abedi died in his suicide attack. Within days, police arrested his younger brother, Hashem Abedi, who had helped him stockpile materials; Hashem was later convicted of 22 counts of murder for assisting in the plot and was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 55 years.

The Manchester bombing sparked an outpouring of solidarity exemplified by the city’s slogan “Manchester Strong” and a benefit concert led by Ariana Grande but also soul-searching about how a local youth Abedi grew up in Manchester became a mass murderer.

It underscored the persistent threat of ISIS-inspired terrorism even as ISIS was losing territory in the Middle East. The UK government and intelligence agencies implemented reforms post-inquiry, aiming to improve the handling of intelligence “dots” so they are connected faster.

Still, for the families who lost daughters, sons, parents, and loved ones that night, the knowledge that the horror might have been averted is a painful burden. As one bereaved mother put it, “We send our kids to a concert and they don’t come home that should never have happened.” The Manchester Arena attack will be remembered as a tragedy that perhaps could have been prevented, and as a reminder of why vigilance against extremist violence must never wane.

On 29 July 2024, a children’s holiday workshop in Southport, Merseyside turned into a scene of terror. That morning, 17-year-old Axel Muganwa Rudakubana walked into a community dance and yoga studio filled with young children and parents. Wearing a green hoodie and a surgical mask and armed with an 8-inch kitchen knife, Axel launched a frenzied stabbing spree without saying a word.

He moved “quickly throughout the room,” slashing and stabbing at random. In the span of minutes, three little girls: Bebe, Elsie, and Alice lay fatally wounded. Nine other children and two adult staff were also injured, many gravely.

Amid scenes of chaos and heroism teachers shielded children and led them to safety, Axel was finally confronted by a man from a nearby office and then tasered by police who arrived on scene. He dropped his knife and was arrested without resistance, his silent rampage brought to an end.

Background: The sheer brutality of the Southport attack shocked Britain, and even more troubling were signs that warnings had been missed. Axel was born in the UK to Rwandan refugee parents and had no known extremist ideology but he had a long history of violent fantasies and alarming behaviour.

At 13, he told a counsellor he “wanted to kill somebody” who bullied him. He brought knives to school repeatedly and was expelled after threatening classmates. He was referred three times to the government’s anti-extremism Prevent program due to his obsession with mass killings.

He researched school shootings during IT class, posted images of dictators like Gaddafi, and looked up terrorist attacks online. However, Prevent officials decided his case did not meet the threshold for a terrorism de-radicalisation program since he lacked a clear ideological motive.

In truth, Axel’s fascination seemed to be violence for its own sake prosecutors later suggested he was driven by “the commission of mass murder as an end in itself” rather than any political or religious cause.

Chillingly, after his arrest investigators discovered he had been experimenting with making ricin poison and had a PDF of an al-Qaeda training manual on his computer, leading to additional terrorism charges.

This raised questions about whether a terrorist ideology had begun to influence him after all, or if he simply gravitated to any tools of mass violence.

Outcome: In January 2025, facing overwhelming evidence, Axel pleaded guilty to 16 charges, including three murders, ten attempted murders, and even a charge for producing a biochemical weapon.

Being 17 at the time of the crime, he narrowly avoided a possible whole-life prison order. Instead, a judge sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum of 52 years to serve.

He will be in his 70s before he can even be considered for release. Prosecutor Ursula Doyle described Alex’s attack as a “meticulously planned rampage” infamous for its “savagery and senselessness”, noting how he had been “obsessed with violence” from a young age and showed no remorse for the atrocity.

The case has prompted intense scrutiny of the Prevent program and social services. Authorities launched reviews into how a known troubled youth slipped through the cracks and why earlier red flags weren’t acted upon.

In the aftermath, Britain grappled with the unsettling fact that a teenager with no clear ideology could carry out an act so cruel targeting innocent children simply to fulfil a violent impulse.

Nicholas Prosper: Failed School Shooter Plot in Luton (2024)

In the early morning hours of 13 September 2024, a quiet Luton neighbourhood became the scene of a horrific family massacre. Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Prosper shot and killed his mother Juliana (48) and two younger siblings 16-year-old Kyle and 13-year-old Giselle in their eighth-floor flat.

Prosper’s plan was even deadlier: after murdering his family, he intended to storm a nearby primary school’s morning assembly with a 12-gauge shotgun and “kill 30 children,” aiming to become “the worst mass murderer in British history”. He had illegally obtained the shotgun with a forged licence and stockpiled over 30 cartridges for the attack.

Prosper’s deadly plot was thwarted only by chance. The commotion of the struggle and gunshots in the flat alerted a neighbour, who called police, prompting Prosper to flee before he could reach the school.

After hiding the loaded shotgun in some bushes, Prosper walked to a nearby road and calmly surrendered to officers who were responding to the 999 call.

Investigators later uncovered the disturbing extent of his preparations: Prosper had researched past school shootings and wrote detailed plans even continuing to write them while in prison awaiting trial in a twisted bid for “notoriety”.

Online records showed an obsession with violent video games and gore; he idolised a character from The Walking Dead game and wrote on social media, “I am the chosen one… guided as Christians are guided by Jesus Christ,” bizarrely linking his murderous intentions to his fantasy world.

Police also found he had posted chilling messages on forums about child abuse, necrophilia, and mass murder, reflecting an “interest in the darkest sides of humanity,” as one report described.

Outcome: In February 2025, Nicholas Prosper pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and multiple weapons offenses. The judge, Mrs. Justice Cheema-Grubb, imposed a life sentence with a minimum of 49 years before parole.

She directly addressed Prosper’s warped motives, telling him: “You intended to unleash disaster on the community of Luton. Your plans were intelligent, calculating and selfish… Your ambition was notoriety. You wanted to be known posthumously as the world’s most famous school shooter of the 21st century.”

The judge noted that Prosper’s mother and siblings likely died fighting him and in doing so “saved the lives of many children” who would have been his next victims.

A senior police investigator called Prosper a “truly evil” individual and admitted he had “never encountered anyone capable of such horrific acts” in his career.

The community of Luton was left in shock at how an introverted teenager living in their midst could plot such carnage. Prosper will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars, ensuring he never has the chance to pursue the infamy he craved.