Al-Qaeda moves into new territory: Aid distribution

In a surreal scene, a man with a scarf over his face stood in the middle of a camp full of starving people and announced that he had come to Somalia on behalf of Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda’s leader, and that al-Qaeda was eager to help famine victims.

“Our beloved brothers and sisters in Somalia, we are following your situation on a daily basis,” said the man, identified as Abu Abdulla Almuhajir.

According to witnesses and photographs from the event, he was surrounded by masked gunmen wearing clean, white vests like aid workers. Mr Almuhajir presided over mounds of donated grain, in sacks marked: “Al Qaeda campaign on behalf of Martyr Bin Laden. Charity relief for those affected by the drought.”

Stranger still, Mr Almuhajir’s skin was white and he spoke perfect English, with an American accent. He said that “brothers in al-Qaeda” had brought grain, powdered milk and dates for the famine victims and that Mr Zawahri had sent him to Somalia with a message of greetings and sympathy.

“Though we are separated by thousands of kilometres, you are consistently in our thoughts and prayers,” he told the Somalis.

The al-Shabaab-run camp Mr Almuhajir visited is on Mogadishu’s outskirts, and it is where al-Shabaab have been essentially imprisoning thousands of starving people. Witnesses said al-Shabaab fighters had plucked desperate people off buses and taken them to their camp at gunpoint. Recent pictures smuggled out by Somali aid workers revealed skeletal children, their skin cracking off and their rib cages visible.