Qaeda threat compounds woes of Yemen's Somali refugees

SANAA — Hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees are now eyed with suspicion in Yemen over a threat by Islamists in Somalia to bolster Al-Qaeda, making bad conditions even worse for an already destitute community.At the beginning of January, a senior official of Somalia's Shebab militia that swears allegiance to Al-Qaeda compounded Yemen's multiple security woes by pledging "to our Muslim brothers in Yemen that we will cross the water between us and reach your place to help you fight the enemy of Allah."Hundreds of newly trained fighters responded to his speech with chants of "Allahu Akbar," or God is greater.The Sanaa government is grappling with a Shiite rebellion in the north, a secessionist movement in the south, and the continuing threat of attacks by the extremist Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).The group has been the target of a sustained crackdown by the country's military after it claimed responsibility for a botched bid to bomb a US airliner on approach to Detroit on Christmas DayYemen responded to the Shebab threat by boosting surveillance and restricting the movement of Somalis who have already braved the Gulf of Aden migration crossing, described by the United Nations as "the busiest and deadliest in the world."Sanaa's director of national security, Ali al-Anisi, told AFP: "We take the threat seriously."Yemen is the only country to have welcomed Somali fugitives. Today there are more than 800,000 of them here. But they have created economic and social problems, and now security concerns."The real number of Somalis currently in Yemen is disputed, with the United Nations last June giving an official figure of 142,000.According to one local expert on jihadists in Yemen, the perceived threat from Shebab is exaggerated."This idea of sending reinforcements from Somalia is mainly just rhetoric," journalist Abdelilah Shaea said."First, in the ideology of jihad, one should help one's brothers wherever in the world they are threatened."Secondly, under Islamist mythology, Yemen is a special country. They believe that, one day, the army that will liberate Palestine and the Great Mosque in Jerusalem will set out from here."Sanaa, which for years operated an open door policy towards Somalis fleeing their violence-ridden homeland, has now given them two months to register in a bid to better monitor and control a community that scrapes a living from mostly menial work.Somalis are automatically accorded refugee status upon reaching Yemen, unlike other nationalities such as Ethiopians whose numbers are also growing.But they are banned from relocating inside the country, and police road blocks have been set up around some refugee camps as Somalis are increasingly eyed with suspicion."Today, every Yemeni will be wary of the Somali washing his car," the country's head of counter-terrorism, General Yahya Saleh, told AFP. "And that will just make their lives more difficult, but Al-Qaeda doesn't give a damn."For Said al-Jemhi, Yemeni expert and author of a book on the local Al-Qaeda affiliate, there is no doubt the Shebab has already established a presence in Yemen."They aren't filling boats with weapons and crossing the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the risk of being intercepted," he said."They already have huge numbers of potential volunteers in the camps. And the more difficult their lives are here, the easier it is to radicalise them."The UN refugee agency said in December the number of migrants fleeing the unstable Horn of Africa and arriving in Yemen rose by 50 percent in 2009, reaching a record high of 74,000.The desperate migrants entrust their lives to people smugglers in a bid to escape the deeply troubled region, which is plagued with civil war, political instability, poverty and famine.Somalia has had no effective government since the early 1990s, and thousands of people have been killed in Mogadishu in recent years as Islamists battle for control of the capital.
Now Yemen, the ancestral home of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a country in which tribal loyalties also hold sway, will be the topic of an international meeting in London focusing on the extremist threat.